


Together.

by RiverOfFandoms



Category: The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, gally x reader - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2018-10-19 13:33:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10640862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiverOfFandoms/pseuds/RiverOfFandoms
Summary: Tutoring Gally seems easy at first, but soon you learn more about him than you ever thought you would; can you keep helping him or will it prove to be just too much for you?





	1. Chapter 1

“So…” Your teacher starts, his glasses sitting on the edge of his nose; his hands rifling through papers of a folder that seems to have been taped up at the binding to keep it from splitting right through. “You requested extra credit, is that right?” How could anyone acquire a folder that… size?

You nod your head slowly, but continue to stare at the bulging folder of however many detentions, changed schools or broken rules that could be filled with. _Impossible_ , you think to yourself. Mr Francis takes a sip from his coffee, pulls out a single sheet of paper, and places it on top of the desk in front of him. You look around his office, crammed with books mostly of education, a few photos of his family, drawings from little kids, and few knick-knacks here and there. And the smell of dust and coffee, almost budding onto an old people smell, fills your nostrils. You know he isn’t that old but you do spot a few greying hairs on his head.

His eyes avert to another piece of paper lying next to it, “I see you have tutored before…” He starts, pushing the glasses up the bridge of his nose. He has a kind of tiredness to his voice, like an extension – it’s there but he could choose to get rid of it if he wanted to. “But you stopped quite abruptly with this student, how come?”

You clear your throat a little before talking, “The student was… he was troubled. And I’m putting that lightly.”

Mr Francis nods his head, “You do know that most kids who need tutoring are troubled in some way?”

You laugh, not loudly, just lightly; it sort of floats from your mouth and hangs in the air inappropriately. “Everyone is troubled, Mr Francis. Tutoring that student, however, put me in danger and at risk, I was pulled from it without question. I had no choice.”

Mr Francis looks up at you for a moment, neither amusement or understanding reflecting back in his eyes. “Galileo.”

You frown, “Excuse me?”

Mr Francis sighs, and removes the glasses from his nose. “Galileo, he is in the grade above you. A senior.”

You look from Mr Francis to the overflowing folder, “You mean… Gally, right? On the football team?”

His eyes narrow, and you suddenly find yourself feeling a little bit uncomfortable under his glare. “Yes, Gally. Whatever his name is nowadays.” He takes another sip from his coffee, the smell beginning to overwhelm you. Not that you do not like coffee, in fact, you live off of it most days. But you can smell instant coffee at the drop of the hat, and on the worst days it can make you feel so much as nausea. “You will be tutoring Gally, starting after school today.”

“Already?” You dare to question, and as your sentence of defiance leaves your lips you already regret speaking. “I mean, I’m just not quite sure if I’m prepared yet. Sometimes I like to bring materials with me to the session that I think might help—

“You will be starting the first session after your classes today, Miss Y/L/N, this is his address,” he slides you a smaller piece of paper with an address scribbled onto it, barely readable, and a phone number underneath. “The phone number is a direct number to my office, in case you have any problems.” He sits back into his chair, and it creaks with age. “Any questions, Y/N?”

“Well… yeah, actually. Do you really think it’s a good idea for me to tutor Gally?”

He only looks back at you, confused and irritated from the assumption that you have some sort of bad attitude to his proposal.

“I don’t think a Senior would want a Junior to tutor him… How is that even possible anyway?”

Mr Francis sighs, “Look, all I know is he needs the help and you’re willing to do it. Yes, he is in the grade above you but you are smart enough to handle that. And if he doesn’t agree with you then that is his own problem, we are providing him the help; he just needs to take it.” He takes this moment now to cough a, unfortunately, phlegmy kind of cough which leads into an almost fit. After he finishes, he takes another sip from his coffee, “No more questions?”

You shake your head, and then collect your bag; picking the piece of paper off of his desk as you walk out. You stare down at the address for the second time, the pace of your heartbeat growing faster. Unfortunately, like all cities, there is always that one neighbourhood, or that one side of town, where things are a bit sketchy. Unfortunately for you, that is where Gally lives. Now, you are not one for discrimination and judgment on others, but it is what it is, and what worries you most is _getting_ to his house. You shake the worry from your head and walk down the school’s corridor, shoving the slip of paper into your jacket pocket.

“Y/N!” A familiar face calls out along the lockers, it’s Thomas. You smile, slinging your bag over your shoulder as you walk over to him. “Coming to watch me play lacrosse tonight?” A cute little grin spreads across his lips, and you swear you see a twinkle in his eye.

However, the giddiness you feel from him stops short as you remember your tutoring session. “I’m not so sure at the moment…”

Thomas frowns, “What? You never skip a game!” He shakes his head, “What will I tell Newt? Teresa? The gang!?” He continues to cry in an over-dramatic tone, as usual when he wants to be funny or entertaining.

You laugh and slap his shoulder playfully, “You know I wouldn’t skip a game if I didn’t absolutely have to.” You feel the slip of paper in your pocket again, the corner of it jutting into the skin of your side. “Besides, it’s not a definite no, it’s just not a definite yes.”

Thomas looks at you suspiciously as he reaches into his locker, pulling out a textbook for his homework, “You’re not… going on a date, are you? Because, as delightful as that would be, I could not give my blessings and approval if he’s taking you away from my lacrosse game.” He chuckles at himself, zipping the backpack up.

“No, there’s no date or hang out even… It’s just school stuff.” You lean your back against the locker beside his, “Hopefully it won’t drag on for too long though. Wouldn’t want to miss seeing you smash those losers from Oak High, now would I?”

“No, you wouldn’t!” He smiles, and slings his backpack up onto one of his shoulders, “I got to run, but I hope you can make it tonight! Bye!” He says, jogging off in a hurry down the opposite way you were heading.

“Bye!” You call after him. You then find your way to your own locker, pack the necessary items, and then leave. Once you reach the doors of the school you take out your mobile phone and send a text to Teresa, explaining that you can’t go for milkshakes with her, Brenda and Newt this afternoon… and like with Thomas, you do not go into much detail as of why.

You take out the piece of paper again, some of the ink has been smudged off –probably because you had sweaty hands or something— and you try and think about which bus would take the fastest route there. You then conclude that the train might actually be the better way to go, so you tuck the paper away again and head down the path towards the train station.

You tug at your jumper, pulling the sleeves over your fingers to keep them from going numb. You really underestimated the weather today, and now you’ll have to suffer those consequences. You keep walking, passing by other students and strangers along the way until you spot a group of seniors up ahead. They block most of the path so you are going to have to push through them or go around. You consider back-tracking completely but as you think of it you realise you are just about to walk through the group, so you keep your head down and hope no one notices your existence.

You make it through without a scratch, relief flooding your anxious mind. However, you spot the train pulling up to the station ahead, and you mumble a curse word as you begin to walk faster. But then, a low grumble of a voice calls out to you, “Hey! You!”

You turn around, wide-eyed, and look towards the person who called for you. He has quite short dark hair, piercing green eyes; and he’s massive. Okay, maybe not massive, but he’s very tall. Very intimidating. Very—

“Are you Y/N?”

You blink, and take in his facial features one more time. Soon you realise this is the boy you are supposed to be tutoring today. Gally. You hadn’t seen him a whole lot before, you could only remember that he was tall and on the football team; but he does not wear the famous jacket like his teammates, instead he wears a leather jacket that reflects strips of sunlight at different angles. “Uh, yeah, yeah that’s me.”

He blinks back too, and looks unsure of what to say. His eyes slowly travel over your face, and your height, as if to size you up or something. “Mr… Mr Francis said—Suddenly he stops talking altogether and looks over his shoulder, glancing back at his classmates who do not seem to be that interested in the conversation you two are having, but even so, he pulls you aside anyway. “You’re tutoring me today, right?” His voice is still rather gruff and raspy, but at a hushed tone.

You nod, barely making eye contact. Then you gesture towards the train that is now leaving its stop, “I was going to take the train…”

He looks towards the train station and then back to you, “Are you crazy? You should never take the train to my house, that stop is known for drug deals and all sorts.” He looks away for a moment, as if contemplating something, “Besides, I was going to give you a lift in my car anyway; safer that way.” He then grabs his bag up from the hood of another car and nods over at his friends, “I’ll see you guys later.” He grabs onto your arm and pulls you along with him further down the pathway, you become so intimidated that your feet stumble over one another and almost trip you up. He glances down at you, “Can you walk like a normal person please? People are going to think I’m forcing you to come with me or something.” You turn back for a moment and see his friends and their friends staring after you, some even wolf-whistling or hooting.

You laugh nervously, “You kind of are,” you gesture to his hand still wrapped around your arm. He lets go of your arm, especially as he hears his friends making suggestive noises.

He stops at a nicely-sized car, unlocks it, and hops in. You follow, sliding into shot-gun, your heart pounding. You’ve never really gotten into a car with some guy you don’t know too well… Isn’t this the exact situation your parents teach you to not do?

“Sorry about them, they don’t know about the tutoring so of course they think of the only other possibility.” He laughs a little bit, but it dies down when he realises you don’t laugh with him. “Oh, and, them not knowing, I would like to keep it that way.”

You continue to look out the window, “Yeah, sure. No problem.”

Gally backs out of the car park, quite swiftly and with ease, and then drives out of the school onto the main road. Stores, houses and wandering people pass by, and you try to keep your focus on them but the thought of Gally sitting right next to you doesn’t leave your mind. And that he’s the one controlling the vehicle. What if he’s one of those crazy drivers that gets off on putting themselves in danger? You hope not.

“I didn’t know that… well,” he starts, his voice a little crackly and uncertain. “You’re a Junior, right?”

You gulp, daring not to look at him in the eyes, “Y-yeah, a Junior.”

He pauses for a moment, and it’s like the silence between you stretches for minutes. “Okay.”

Your phone vibrates in your pocket, so you take it out cautiously. The text is from Teresa, and reads:

_that’s ok, hope to see u tonight!_

You chew your bottom lip, realising that it might not be as easy to get away as you thought. A part of you wants to help Gally, and to respect the chance of extra credit that you’ve been given by the school, but a part of you just wishes you could take advantage of his probable disinterest in being tutored and leave early. You turn the display screen off and put the phone away, hoping that you’ll come up with a decision later.

You slow down to a stop at a red light, and Gally takes this moment to flick through a few radio stations. Another car pulls up beside you, their music blaring, windows down and laughter filling through your own barely open window. Your eyes wander over to the car and the head in the opposite window that bops to the music causes you to shriek and duck down so your no longer in view.

Gally jumps slightly and the sound you make and glances down over at you, his eyebrows creased in concern, “What?” He looks out the windscreen and notices nothing, then he looks out your window. His eyebrows slowly become undone from the furrow they were in, and then he turns back to face forward. Minutes go by, and neither of you move or speak. You finally hear the music fade out into the distance as the car turns its corner, a sigh of relief escapes your lips as you sit up.

Gally’s foot presses onto the gas pedal and the car takes off, continuing its path straight down the road. “Didn’t tell your friends either?”

You straighten up a little bit more, and glance over at him. Hardened jaw, eyes straight, and hands stiff against the wheel. “I just thought… because you’re a Senior…”

He blinks once and then swallows before answering, “Yeah. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Time passes by as a throaty and hoarse voice talks through the radio and streets go past in a blur of colours. A younger woman mentions the weather, and then it goes back to him as he announces the next song. A new song from Y/F/B. As the intro plays, Gally’s fingers find themselves over the volume dial; spinning it to turn the volume up.

You smile, “You like this song?”

He taps his fingers on the wheel to the beat of the song, “Yeah… yeah I do, actually. They’re my favourite band, since forever ago.”

“Same! Have you heard all of their newest album?” You say excitedly.

“Only a few songs, just whatever’s been played on the radio. I haven’t… haven’t had the time to go out and get the CD.”

You smile to yourself, thankful that you two have something in common and that he’s someone to buy a hard copy version of music still. You know _iTunes_ music is relevantly easier, but the CD makes it so you have something physical. “Well, if you like, I can play you the CD when we get to your house, I have it in my bag.”

He seems to smile at this, or at least the colour in his eyes goes lighter. You’re not sure, but something about his mood definitely changes. “That would be great.”

You sit back into the car seat after turning up the song just a little bit more, since it’s your favourite part, and quietly sing the lyrics until the song is over.


	2. Chapter 2

You follow Gally up to the steps of his house, onto the porch and then patiently wait as he twists his keys in the front door. The door swings open with a creak and you both walk in, he chucks his bag onto the kitchen bench and immediately ransacks the fridge. “Want anything to eat?”

You pause in the middle of the kitchen floor as you take in your surroundings. Dishes lay in bunches inside the sink, the dining table cluttered with books, magazines, mugs, and clothes that hang on the chairs. A wash basket sitting close by, filled. “Just… Just a glass of water would be fine, thanks.”

He fills up your glass with water, grabs a bag of half eaten Doritos, and then leads the way up the old, noisy steps. You look at some of the picture frames hanging on the wall, most include Gally and his parents, however there are frames that hang without any picture inside at all. He shows you to his bedroom and you hesitate only slightly before you walk inside. “I would have cleaned up a bit if Mr Francis told me about you before today.”

“It’s okay.” You look around the room, a lot of clutter of things without any other room to place them. Comic books, clothes, footballs or basketballs strewn around the place. You even spot a few sport trophies, but when Gally notices you looking at them he pushes them further back under the mess.

He sits down onto his bed, his legs stretched out and his back against the headboard, the springs inside squeak with his weight and he looks up to you expectantly. But you just look around the room instead, realising there is no couch or chair for you to sit on. His voice sounds out through the chewing of his chips, “You _can_ sit on my bed, you know.”

“Oh, right,” you sit down on his bed, at the very end, and reach into your bag. Your hand stops for a moment when you realise you didn’t bring anything for the session anyway, so instead you just take out a pen and your notebook in case it’s needed. “Okay… so… is there anything your specifically having trouble with?”

Gally stares over at you, and then shrugs.

“Did you get given any homework for tonight? We can go through it together if you want.”

“Probably,” he mutters, licking the Dorito flavouring off the tips of his fingers. He then picks his bag off the ground and sets it onto the bed, the mattress shifting and bouncing a little from the movements.

You unzip his bag as he finishes off the last bits of Doritos, and peer inside. You pull out a few textbooks and sift through the work he’s been given. You then reach inside for another pen or pencil when your fingers touch something hard and cool. You look inside and see that it’s a CD Walkman. You pull it out with care, and stare at it as if it’s some sort of relic or piece of ancient history. “You use a Walkman?”

He frowns and snatches the thing from your hands, “Yeah, so?”

You raise your eyebrows from his sudden protectiveness over the object, “Just… haven’t seen one being used in while, is all.”

“Yeah, well, I’m sorry I don’t have access to my parents’ credit cards to buy things like iPods and what not.”

“I wasn’t… I wasn’t trying to be insulting, Gally. I’m just surprised, okay?” You carefully lift it off his lap, and smile at his glaring stare, “I’m not going to hurt it, I’m going to put a CD in it.”

He crosses his arms over his chest, and doesn’t say anything back but instead watches your movements intently.

You take the CD you mentioned to him before out of your bag and slip it inside the Walkman.

“Why do you even have a CD; you’ve got an iPhone.” He challenges, lifting one of the earphones to his ear.

“I like to own CD’s,” you reply simply, shrugging your shoulders before you put the other earphone in your own ear.

He looks at you, and you feel the stare, but you ignore it by looking through his homework with more depth. Apparently, he has an English essay due in a few days. And a math quiz in the same week. You pick up the novel that the essay is about and flick through the pages to see if he has a bookmark anywhere, but his lingering stare makes you lose focus. Your eyes flicker over to him, the novel still in your hand, “What?”

He blinks and shifts uncomfortable, “N-nothing, nothing.”

You’re not convinced it was nothing, but whatever it was does not seem that important to him anymore so you let it go. “Have you read any of this novel?”

“Half.”

You frown, “Where’s your bookmark then? For a moment there I thought you hadn’t read any of it at all.”

“I just remember the page number.”

You raise an eyebrow, “Really?”

He raises an eyebrow back at you, “Problem?”

You laugh lightly, “Guess not.” You take the essay task into your hands and read the question he has to answer, “This is due in a few days, you think you can finish the book tonight?”

The raised eyebrow disappears and is replaced with two furrowed ones and a frown to accompany them, “It took me like three weeks just to get through half of that miserable book.”

You turn the novel over in your hand and read the title, _Pride and Prejudice_. You try your hardest to hold back laughter, but unfortunately it slips through.

Gally raises his hands, “Exactly! All I’ve noticed so far is that it’s about a couple of gold-diggers trying to get a rich husband or something.” He sits back further into his bed, listening to the rise of the music as it gets good, “Let’s just do other homework instead.”

You frown, “I’m the tutor.”

His eyebrows raise, “And?” He reaches for the novel but you jerk your hands away from him, still clutching to the paperback, an amused smile on your face.

“We’re going to read it.”

He lifts himself off from the bedhead, “I’d rather not.” He edges closer to you, “There’s no way I’ll be able to finish that terrible book tonight, so why try?” He leaps for it, his hand outstretched, his fingers carelessly grabbing for the cover. You pull back, and raise your hand above and then behind you and keep it hanging there, out of reach.

You look up at his face, which is surprisingly close to you now, “Gally.” Your so close in fact that you smell his deodorant, and a teenage male smell that, for some reason, is kind of pleasant. “Do you want help with your work or not? To finish the essay, which is due in three days may I remind you, you need to finish the novel!”

He continues to stare down at you, and for a second you think he glances down at your lips. But you must have been wrong as he quickly sits back onto the bed, a grumpy expression on his face. “Alright, alright…” Even so, it leaves a fluttering feeling in your chest.

You let the book rest on your crossed legs, “So, what page?”

“216.”

You open up the book again after pausing the music and brush your fingers over the pages you turn over until you reach page 216; you begin reading the first sentence. The words slide off your tongue with ease, having already read this book however means that there will be no surprises to keep relatively interested.

“What… what are you doing?” Gally’s voice breaks in between the string of words that come from your mouth.

You look up at him over the book, eyebrows creased slightly, “Reading it to you.”

He raises an eyebrow, the green in his eyes suddenly becoming more piercing than before, “Just because I need a tutor doesn’t mean I can’t read.”

You grin a little, “I know that but I thought if I read it to you, you would be able to put up with it more.”

He sits back into his pillow again, “Alright.”

You go on reading, sometimes getting stuck on a word but mostly being able to pronounce everything smoothly. You notice that he listens, too. Quite intently. You feel his green eyes holding you in his sight, never letting go, and it surprises you really. He could easily fall asleep, or direct his attention to something else of more interest, but he doesn’t. And you appreciate it.

You place the book down in front of you so that it keeps the pages open to where you were reading from, “I… have to use the bathroom.”

Gally blinks and then gruffly says, while pointing to the hallway, “Outside to your right.”

You walk into the bathroom, not many things linger. A few bottles of shampoo or shower gel lie about or sit on top of shelves, a few towels hanging on the door or off misplaced racks, tiles the colour of off white… Very different from your own bathroom is all you think.

Once you’re finished you walk back to Gally’s room, passing by a room about the same size. You stop and take a few steps back. It is neat inside the room, at least neater than Gally’s, but old. _No,_ you think, _not old… Deserted. Untouched_. You shake off the weird feeling from within the room and walk back down the hall again, straight into Gally’s room; feeling slightly guilty for peering into someone else’s room.

Gally still sits on the bed but a phone in hand. Your phone.

“Hey!” You cry, coming closer to him as you snatch the phone away. “What do you think you’re doing?” Suddenly you don’t feel so guilty anymore.

“It buzzed!” He says in defence, eyes wide.

You put your hands on your hip, “And? That doesn’t give you the right to read my texts!”

He rolls his eyes, “It’s not like it would be a text from a boy.”

You frown, “What’s that supposed to mean?” A threatening tone of voice replaces your usual one.

He sighs, looking down at the bed covers. “Nothing. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Silence sits between you two; uncomfortable and awkward. You suddenly wish that you didn’t react that way but… You’ve never met this boy until now, so seeing him with your phone in his hands gave you an awful surprise.

“Look I… I wasn’t going to read it, but then I did because…” He looks up at you briefly, “It sounds like you’re supposed to be somewhere else right now.”

You look down at the screen.

_u coming to the game?_

It’s Teresa. Looking at the text now, the phone sitting gently in your hands, you realise you almost forgot about the lacrosse game.

“I just thought that maybe you were needed somewhere, and they might have gotten worried because you didn’t show up when you were supposed to… or something like that.”

The grip on your phone becomes tighter, “Well, it’s not important. I just forgot to cancel.”

Gally suddenly shakes his head, “No, no. You’ve been here long enough.”

“Excuse me?”

He gets up from his bed and slips on his leather jacket, and as he walks out he grabs his keys from the bedside table. “I’ll take you home.”

“But we… we haven’t finished the book yet.”

“You coming or what?” He calls from the end of the hallway.

You sigh and grab up your things, glancing at the book still left on its open page. You reach for it but then draw your hand back again, Gally wouldn’t have remembered the page number because you read it to him. So you leave it there and return the glass you used to the kitchen on the way out.


	3. Chapter 3

You told Gally to just drop you off at the school and at first he looked very confused as to why you would want to go back to ‘that prison’, as he put it, but you explained to him that your plans were seeing the lacrosse game tonight. He only looked out to the field where it was going to be held with curiosity… and then you left.

You trudge over to the stands beside the field, your black boots slowly getting caked with mud from the sloshy puddle of grass you have to walk on, on your way over.  You spot Teresa and she waves you over; you take a seat next to her and Newt; with Minho and Brenda sitting alongside him. “Where were you all afternoon?”

You place your bag down by your feet, “Oh… just school stuff.”

Newt raises an eyebrow, “Oh yeah? What kind?”

You open your mouth but whatever you were going to say is drowned out by the sudden cheers and screams from students and family all over the crowd as your team of lacrosse players come jogging out into the field. You spot Thomas, his brown head bobbing up and down slightly as he runs with his teammates. You stand up alongside your friends and cheer with the crowd, shouting his name. He notices and looks over to you all, smiling. You smile back.

Minutes later, the lacrosse game begins. You talk with your friends, watch Thomas intently as he swiftly moves around the field, and eat food. You take out your phone from your bag and snap a few selfies with Teresa and Brenda, Newt and Minho, and a few other friends who decided to watch tonight like Alby and Chuck. You take a few action shots of Thomas as he leads the team, and then you sit your phone onto your lap as you pass over more fries down the aisle.

Your phone buzzes, and Teresa’s eyes glance down at the screen. She blushes when you catch her looking but… She wasn’t the only one. Newt’s eyes widen, eyebrows raised, “You were doing school stuff, huh?” You can hear the sarcasm in his voice.

_Tomorrow, same time??_

“Shove it,” You say, unlocking your phone to reply to Gally. “It _is_ just school stuff.”

Newt crosses his arms over his chest and Teresa looks doubtfully down at her feet, “I know a booty-call-text when I see one, Y/N.”

You glare over at Newt, even though his tone of voice is in a quite noticeably jokingly manner, “It is not a booty-call-text, Newton.”

Now it is his turn to glare back.

“And,” You go on, ignoring the annoyance that comes when you use the name Newton, “It _is_ just school stuff, like I said before. A group assignment so we have to meet outside of school.”

“ _Sure_ it is.” Newt replies, still obviously irritated.

You shrug and don’t reply; instead you stare out towards the field after texting Gally back saying that tomorrow would be all good to do another tutoring session. You think over all that’s happened today and almost laugh out loud at the fact that you had rode alongside Gally in his car, and even went to his house. It’s strange, really, Gally was never someone you pictured spending any time even talking to let alone going into his house and his bedroom. Sitting on his bed. You shake your head, and then cheer along when Thomas’ team wins the game.

* * *

“And then, towards the end of your game, Y/N got a text that was _very_ suggestive, wasn’t it Teresa?” Newt says excitedly to everyone as you sit in a booth waiting for your burgers. You ordered one, as you only ate a few snacks at the game, however, the boys ate hotdogs and fries and who knows what else; you are finding it hard to believe that they could still possibly be hungry.

Thomas looks over at you, a straw in between his lips as Newt tells the short story of your “private” life. He lets the straw go and says, “I thought you said you weren’t going on a date this afternoon?”

You blink.

The others look at each other and then Teresa says, “You knew?”

Thomas nods, “Well, I knew that there would be a slight chance that she would miss tonight’s game, but when I asked she said it was just ‘school stuff’.”

“Uh,” You start, looking at them questioningly, “I am right here.”

“School stuff!” Newt yells back, laughing almost hysterically, and then looking back at you with wild brown eyes, “That’s exactly what you told us!”

“And?” You ask, before taking a sip from your drink.

“Who even says that?” Newt asks in general, “And you keep saying it, like you’re hiding something.”

Your eyes widen and your hands clench into fists, “I am not! It _was_ school stuff!”

Brenda smirks from the corner she sits quietly in, like usual, and Minho only waggles his eyebrows suggestively –none of them believe you. You consider just spilling the beans on the whole tutoring thing but… it’s really not up to you to make that decision. It’s not like people knowing that you tutor would hurt your “reputation” in some way, you’ve done it before. But Gally is on the football team so he has expectations to be “manly”, which apparently requires needing absolutely no help on anything. Plus, you’re a Junior and he is a Senior. You can see how it would be embarrassing because you’d definitely be embarrassed by something like that; which was why you never told them in the first place.

“Look, if you don’t believe me then that’s your fault because I’m telling the truth.” You sit back in your seat as the waitress places your burger down in front of you. The others grow silent because of what you said, and because everyone is too busy eating anyway.

Once you’re all finished, you say your goodbyes. Even though there was still a bit of tension from the last conversation, you know that they’ll get over it and so will you. Tomorrow will be a new day and no one will even think twice about the mysterious outing you had and the text.

You start down the road towards your street, the pavement glossy from recent rain. Thomas offered to give you a ride home but you politely declined, after being inside there with them implying all sorts of things; you just had to be on your own. And what better than to be outside, on a nice walk, breathing in the cool night-air?

You turn down your street, but as you do, someone slams into your side and almost sends you to the ground. You groan on impact but manage to hold your balance, the other person grunts as well; obviously irritated. They speak out in a gruff tone, “Watch where you’re going, alright?”

You frown when you realise you definitely know that voice. You look at the person again, their face kind of obscured by their beanie and their hood over that, but the leather jacket and smell of wood and musk immediately causes you to realise who this person is. “Gally?”

Gally frowns and seems to sink further into his jacket, but the light from the streetlamp illuminates his face and reveals a scarred, bloody and bruised face. “Y/N?”

You come closer to him, your eyes wandering over his face and your tone of voice exceeding the normal tone of a concerned person, “Gally! What happened to your face!?” You reach a hand out towards him, on instinct.

He immediately pulls at his hood to fit it tighter around his face, and then takes a step back, “Nothing. What are you even doing out here? All by yourself?”

Your hand falls back to your side, “Walking home,” you say simply, looking at the only thing he’ll let you: his green eyes. “What about you? And don’t tell me you’re doing the same thing, you live on the other side of town almost, and you’ve certainly done more than walking.”

He looks taken aback almost, like he did not expect this kind of sentence mixed with this kind of worry in this kind of situation to ever occur to him. “I… was just doing stuff.”

You grab onto his arm and pull him with you as you continue your walk down your street. He protests by wiggling free from your hold, but you grab his arm in an instant again. “You’re coming with me.”

He finally lets you lead him onwards, with a grunt or a sigh; sometimes you can never tell the difference when he does either one. “Where are you taking me?”

“My house.”

He stops walking, and of course, so do you because of your obvious attachment to him now. “I can’t go to your house.”

“Why not?”

“Because of your parents. One look at my face and your Dad will want to shoot me or call the police. Mind you, both have happened in the past.”

You roll your eyes and force him along again, “Probably because you did something to provoke that.” You two walk in silence for a moment or so until you reach your house, no windows lit or TV sounds coming from within. “My parents won’t be back until morning because they went away on the weekend.”

You walk up onto the porch and then open the front door, and a few seconds later you are both inside. Warmer and cosier. You turn on a few lights and open the fridge, “Have you eaten?”

Gally nods.

“Thirsty?”

He shakes his head. “Why am I here again?”

You walk over to him and push down his hood, his whole face no longer shadowed and kept mysteriously out of proper sight. Now that there is real lighting, you can see way more bruises and cuts on his face. You glance down at his lips, scathed and bleeding almost. “Because, your face. I’ll patch it up and then you can go home, alright?”

“Okay, Mom.”

“I’m your tutor, not your Mom.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He waves it off and follows you into your bathroom. Once he is seated on the edge of the bathtub, you take his face gingerly into your hands and look through in much more detail what you must clean out. You swab the cuts that are open with an antiseptic wipe, and watch as his eyes squint and his mouth twists in grimace.

“Sorry,” you say quietly, just as you finish cleaning the last wound.

“Don’t need to be, I’m fine.”

You take a step back and look at his face one final time; your eyes travel over the rest of his body on accident, and you feel the urge to quickly turn your head away and walk out of the room. Suddenly though, your eyes stop at the torn and bleeding skin of his knuckles. “So there was another guy, huh.”

He also looks down at his hands, cautiously moving the fingers; stretching them out carefully. “They’re… fine.”

You take a chair into your hands and slide it over, opposite to Gally. “No, they’re not.” Once you’re seated, you grab his hand and place in onto the part of your leg just above your knee, your left hand still touching his hand to keep it steady. You clean the blood off and then wrap it with some bandaging you found in your house’s first aid kit. You do the same with his other hand but you don’t place a bandage over the knuckles as they aren’t as damaged.

He looks up at you as you pack the first aid kit away and throw the bloody wipes into the bin, “I don’t really know why you did this for me… but thanks.”

You close the cupboard door, and nod, “That’s alright.” He follows you outside of the bathroom and then outside onto the front porch again. You hug your arms tighter to your chest when you step out as the cool breeze before becomes absolutely still; drawing even more coldness into the air. “Bloody hell.”

Gally chuckles at your reaction, “My car is parked just around the corner so I’ll be walking on over there,” he stops on the second porch-step and turns back again to look at you, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

You nod and watch as he slips on his hood and walks down the street; disappearing into the night.

You lie on the couch surrounded by papers and textbooks as you do your own study. As the night draws on, you find your eyes drooping with exhaustion. But as you start to nod off, the blood and torn skin from Gally flashes through your mind sending you into a two second panic moment. Your eyes wander over to the time, “What a day,” you mumble when you realise it’s probably best to get some sleep. Even if Gally disturbs your dreams.


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, school goes by without much difference to your usual routine unfortunately. But like you had thought last night, the gang no longer asks you any questions about who you were texting and what you were doing yesterday afternoon; however, you still wonder if they hold their suspicions.

As your lessons drag on and you find yourself staring out the window unintentionally, you think about last night. You think about Gally. You start to hope that it was just a one off fight that guys sometimes have when they disagree, or maybe that the other person was drunk and attacked him. Would it have been self-defence? Your hands clench into fists, what if it wasn’t?

When you’re at your locker, you see Teresa and Newt heading on over. You sigh, very quietly, and continue to shovel in books into your backpack. “Hey, Y/N!” Teresa exclaims as they both halt by you, Newt watching intently on the almost over-flowing backpack you have.

He chuckles, “Got a few essays to write or something?”

“Tu— You pause mid word and look to your feet in uncertainty. “Yeah, something like that.”

“So… Can’t hang out with us again?” Teresa asks, but you don’t see annoyance in her eyes like you expected, you instead see concern and worry.

“Uh,” You close your locker quickly, your eyes darting away from them both, “Probably not today, sorry.” You hear them mumble a goodbye, at least you think it was a goodbye, as you walk away from them and out the front doors. You walk down the same path as yesterday where you first met Gally, the usual crew hanging around smoking daringly or laughing discreetly while looking down at their mobiles. You spot his car, but Gally seems to be nowhere.

“You’re that pretty little Junior that Gally’s been seeing, right?” One of the taller and lanky almost looking Seniors call out to you. You only barely glide over his eyes out of confusion but also intimidation. “You’re a quiet little thing aren’t you.” He walks on over, ditching his smoke, and settling beside you against the brick wall. “Gally’s not here.”

You feel yourself shrink into yourself, further and further, especially after getting a whiff of his smoky breath and feeling his hot stare linger too long upon you. “D-do you know where I can find him?”

“Shouldn’t be too far, he didn’t take his car.” He says, suggesting to the worn down thing that you sat in yesterday. “You should probably get used to this kind of thing, though.”

You furrow your eyebrows and manage to look up at him as you ask, “What do you mean?”

You sense an amusement deep in the creases of his smile. But not the endearing kind, the kind of mockery but also… something else. And it intimidates you; more than usual. “Him running off like this, it’s a common thing with him. So don’t be shocked if he doesn’t show up for one of your dates.” He laughs even louder at this, his ugly thin lips stretching to let the unpleasant sound out; thankfully though, he walks away from you as he does this. But as you stand against the wall, a coldness coming over your body, you can still feel the nameless senior’s stare, and all of his buddies’ too.

You rifle through your bag and pull out your cell, and walk away from the scene, following the old, cracked path down towards the train station. If Gally isn’t around then there’s no point waiting for him, especially if you have to be around those creeps.

“Aw, where are you going? I told you to get _used_ to it, not run away from it!”

Your pace quickens, but so does the one behind you that only now do you notice. Your steps are on the verge of breaking into a run as your heart beats faster inside your chest, your surroundings suddenly becoming blurred. As you round the corner of the school building in hopes that maybe there is a group of other students still lingering behind, something behind you grabs for your arm. Your first reaction by instinct is to pull away, and you spin around in the process, but it is not the leering, pathetic Senior student who called out to you earlier. It’s Gally.

You see a confusion spreading through his eyes, “Where are you going?”

The fast paced beat of your heart and the sweat sticking to the palms of your hands –the anxiety you feel is overwhelming. You roughly twist your arm from his grip out of frustration, “Who cares?”

“Whoa, why are you upset?”

Your breath hitches and a sudden feeling of crying overcomes you but you push it away as best as you can, “I… I just thought one of your friends was following me.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know… they called out to me about being ‘that pretty little Junior that Gally is seeing’ and they kept staring, so I walked away and then I heard footsteps and—

“And you thought it was one of them?”

You look away shyly; “Yeah.”

“Well, it wasn’t.”

You turn your attention back to him and roll your eyes, “Thanks for the confirmation.”

“Because, if they did ever even tried to do something to you they’ve got _me_ to deal with afterwards.”

“Is this an attempt to intimidate me or?”

“No!” Gally shakes his head and sighs, “I’m saying that you don’t need to worry about them because they know not to mess with me.”

You raise an eyebrow, “And they know not to mess with you because…?”

“Because they might have in the past and it didn’t end so well for them.” His usual glittering green eyes fade slightly, darkening into something different. But only for a moment. A single, chilling moment that you won’t ever forget. Silence hovers between you two like a dark cloud, thundering and storming with confusion and questions.

Gally breaks the silence, his words pushing the cloud out of sight, “You still up for a tutoring session?”

“As long as we get some coffee on the way.”

* * *

You find yourselves sitting on Gally’s bed again, his room a little tidier than yesterday. You smile at that, and you also notice fresh sheets and quilts on his bed. You take a sip from your coffee and Gally does the same as he unzips his backpack. You had shouted money for both of your coffees, probably as an apology for running off and being scared; maybe because you felt like being nice to Gally.

“I finished the book last night.”

You blink in the surprised way you usually do, “Really?”

He recounts the ending of the book. “It was painful to read though, like I said it would be.”

You smile over at him, “At least reading it is over now.”

“Yeah but I still have to quote the damn thing in my essay.”

You giggle before taking another sip. You watch as he pulls out a thick workbook from his bag and places it on top of the bedcovers in front of him, and then he flicks through until he finds a clean page. “So, how am I supposed to start this?”

You look at him thoughtfully, his green eyes staring back into you at first puzzled with your lack of reply. But then he must notice what you’re thinking over in your mind and he shrinks away from you slightly, his eyes finding his hands in his lap. “I know having to write on paper is a hassle it’s just that I don’t own a laptop. Sorry.”

You shake your head and scooch closer towards him, “No, that’s okay. I just… Paper is fine, but I’ve never been one to use it for essays.” You laugh heartily, but it doesn’t reach him.

“It’s just I don’t earn enough money for those kinds of things, and owning a car is expensive enough as it is… you know, maintenance and fuel and stuff. Plus, the school loans me laptops every now and then, so I don’t _always_ use paper.”

“It’s okay,” you take the pen sitting in the middle of the book out of the dip in the binding and scribble a title of ‘essay planning’, “I guess I’m just embarrassed over the fact that you’ll have to see my messy handwriting.”

Gally laughs quietly while staring down at your hand as it traces the letters for words that come with ease. “A technique I’ve always thought helpful before writing an essay is to plan it out. What points you want to discuss and why you think they would help in answering your essay question.”

He nods along as you set out a layout and explain what he should be thinking about and how to tell whether or not the points that he comes up with would help or not help for the overall conclusion. By the end of an hour, Gally has taken full control over his homework and has finished the essay planning as well as starting an introduction. You had to help a bit, guiding him to the things he should write about and asking him questions that would direct him to a greater answer. By the end of your planning, the page had become a mural of scribbles in both your handwriting and his, you could read his and he could read yours –so that was all that mattered. But they were both very different and individual, popping out to the eye in their own ways. You liked how it looked.

You watch Gally intently as he continues to write his introduction, pausing to think or erase a word, watching how he traces the skin of his jaw with a finger or two as he thinks through his choices, and how in random moments he stares up at the ceiling and sighs.

“Something interesting up there?” You ask, a smile spreading across your lips.

He looks back down at you, “You’re staring at me.”

You feel your cheeks become hot, “I’m observing my student.” And you tear your eyes away from him as you pick up your cell, turning the screen on but staring at nothing in particular.

You still feel his stare on you though. Little did you know, he was staring at you not to find your eyes but to take in the tiny details of your hair and your skin and your lips. His cheeks go hot as well and to distract his mind from your face he speaks up in reply. “Don’t call me your student ever again.” And at the moment your Y/E/C eyes and his green eyes clash, you both break out in laughter.

However, both of your light sounding laughter echoes through the empty hallway and stirs a man sleeping in his bed. His eyes flicker open and adjust to the new light spilling through the cracks in his closed blinds. He sits up and wanders through the mess on the floor: the beer cans and the junk food packets that decorate his carpet. They have been there since it happened and will always be there. Not because of his laziness, although that is a factor, but in the way that it will always be like that because those things, those irrelevant and dirty things are a part of who he is now.

You lean in closer to Gally to help him with one of his sentences when the door to his room is practically thrown open. Gally slides the notebook under the covers in one smooth movement and knocks the pen out of your hand. He looks over to you, not menacingly, but indifferent to usual; and for some reason unknown to you, you know you cannot talk. Not even utter a word. Not now at least.

The man standing in the doorway is old, not old-old, but old. Probably in his fifties. You see the greying specks throughout what is left of his hair mixed in with the same colour that colours Gally’s hair. You see the same eyes; the piercing green that always left you in awe. However, it is different with this man, the piercing green that emits from him only gives you chills. And that is where the similarities between this man and Gally end.

“What’s this?” The man asks, his voice hoarse from sleeping, probably; so he coughs once and then twice to rid of the mucus deep in his chest. He throws the question to Gally of course, but he continues to stare at you.

“I… a…” Gally blinks a few times and you notice he’s trying to stay in control of the situation; you wish you could help but the warning in Gally’s eyes threw you off. “A friend, Dad. We’re just hanging out.” He scratches his head, “If we’re being too loud we can go outside.”

Finally, his stare breaks away from you and falls onto Gally’s eyes instead, “No, no it’s too cold outside.” Gally’s Dad stands for a moment longer and then explains his sudden appearance, “I just heard laughter and…” He looks away, and then turns back towards the hall and leaves his room. Not another word. Not another breath.

When you finally muster up enough courage to look over at Gally instead of staring after the man who left the room, like some sort of ghost apparition, you see that the usual green in his eyes has almost disappeared now. Something is wrong, and there isn’t anything that you can say to help. So you just sit and wait, wondering if Gally is going to come back.

“Maybe you should… maybe you should go.” He finally says, his voice almost a whisper but not quite. He doesn’t look at you either, he looks past you, and you don’t like how it makes you feel non-existent.

You continue to sit and stare, your hand palm-down on his bed, your eyes wary and your mind buzzing with thoughts. “Maybe _we_ should go.” Your eyes find his after a long time of staring, and for once he doesn’t look confused or drawn back into himself; for once he understands. He grabs his keys off the bedside table, his bag, and then you follow along behind him with all of your things too.

Before you know it, you’ve driven up farther away from your home and his, and you’re not too sure where you are going but soon he stops on the side of the road, a gravelled path provided to put cars at rest safely off the main road. He gets out.

You watch after him for a moment, he doesn’t look back, he just walks away. He pushes his hood up over his dark head and shoves his hands into his jacket pockets. You leave all of your stuff in his car, except for one thing, and follow behind him, always following, unsure of what he will do next. Up ahead, after trekking through long grass and both upright and fallen trees, you see him sit down on a picnic table. He sits not on the seats around the table but on top of the table itself with his feet resting on the bench.

You find a spot next to him and breathe in the chilly air, “This is an odd spot for a picnic table.”

He laughs, “Used to be more of ‘em but then this whole area got flooded, five or six years back, most of the tables rotted or got swept away by the current.” He slaps the wood you both sit upon, “But this beauty stood strong then and still stands strong now.”

You inspect the table yourself, it does look quite beaten down and worn, but so far it has held both your weight and Gally’s. “You sure it’s not just going to… collapse?”

“Checked it myself, it won’t fall down for a long time.” He stares out into the river that weakly flows by, not heaps low but not full either. Winter hasn’t been around for too long yet to cause any high rise in the surrounding rivers or lakes.

Minutes roll by and he suddenly turns to you, “I shouldn’t have told you to go like that.”

“It’s alright, I might’ve done the same thing.”

“You just have to understand…” He looks at his hands, “I know I acted a bit weird. When my Dad came into the room.” He shakes his head, and then stares out across the river, “My Dad, he isn’t a bad guy or anything, there’s just… stuff. Yeah,” he continues to stare at the horizon, the sun drooping nearer and nearer to it, “Stuff, between us. Things that have happened that are too hard to explain.” He breathes in heavily, “I love him and all, because he’s my Dad, but sometimes I can’t be around him. You know?”

You nod, even though you do not fully understand, but you figure that that’s okay. He needs comfort, and even if it’s just a simple nod, you’ll give him that. You take the thing you brought out of the car from inside your jacket and place it between you and him on the table. At first, he doesn’t notice. But when you hover your hand over towards him, an earphone in your fingers, he smiles gratefully and takes it out of your hand and places it into his ear. You do the same and turn the music on; the CD you bought is inside Gally’s CD Walkman, and it plays the first song on the track list between you two like an anthem.

“I didn’t think that this album would give me that same feel as the others. But it does.”

You stare at the red numbers lit up on the Walkman, the figures 01. “What kind of feeling?”

“Freedom, I think. But more than that.” He laughs, and you suddenly find that the way he laughs and the sound that comes out is the most beautiful thing you might have ever seen and heard. This thought hitches your breath and you feel a fluttering sensation in your stomach. “I sound like an idiot, I know.” He continues to laugh as he talks on, “If I was you I’d probably be cringing right about now.”

You giggle with his laugh, “It’s not cringe worthy if it’s true. I think I get the same feeling.”

“Good that,” he says, a smile filling his face; ear to ear.


	5. Chapter 5

You sit in the front seat next to Gally in his car and look out your window to see your plain old house staring back at you washed yellow in the dim light of the street lamps. You only hesitate before opening the door because of your surprising amount of enjoyment from today’s events. You don’t want it to end, but a part of you knows there will be many more chances to hang out with Gally like that again. It’s strange, you think to yourself, how connected you feel to Gally only after knowing him for a short amount of time.

You turn to him in this moment, his face shadowed by the dark sky and lack of light inside the car, “I just wanted to say that–

But suddenly, Gally shifts his gaze, and looks towards the road in front of his parked car, “Y/N?”

Your chest tightens and you feel as though all of the oxygen is sucked out from your lungs, “Yeah?” You don’t like his tone, you don’t like his alertness, and you don’t like the fact that you are feeling real fear.

“Go to the back of the car and hide behind your seat.”

You do as he says, sweat droplets forming on your face and hands, “Gally?” Your voice comes out, only barely, and it seems to hang in the air between you for a couple of seconds.

“Don’t say anything.” His voice is deep and threatening, but not threatening  _to_  you. Just threatening, as if he’s using his fear to work with him.

You shrink further into the car’s carpeted floor, the smell of cigarettes and stale booze, but also somewhere in the air, the smell of Gally, the smell you have come to know in recent days.

A knock raps over the driver’s window, Gally rolls the window down and you feel a sudden cool breeze wash in through the open gap; it helps get rid of the feeling of suffocation. “Gally,” the voice rasps, wheezy and hoarse, “You know, my boys came back last night with bruises and cuts all over. Now, who do you s’ppose did that to ‘em, huh?”

“Look,”

But the mysterious man cuts him off as he grabs Gally’s shirt collar and pulls him closer to the window, and closer to the shadowed face. “Do not, ‘look’ me, son. You have a problem with my boys, you talk to me. If they have a problem with you, well, it’s probably best to just let them do what they want to do without any arguments.” He pushes Gally back from him in one single shove movement and coughs for what seems like minutes on end, a nasty phlegm cough too that brings nausea to your stomach and throat. “I still need that money. Don’t you forget.”

“Y-yeah, yeah, I’ll get it. No worries.” These words seem to stumble form Gally’s mouth in a voice of uncertainty, but more so, fear and anxiety.

A few minutes go by, silence suffocating the scene. You still sit in the crook between the front passenger seat and the back passenger seat, that stale smell from before growing heavier by the second after Gally rolls his window back up again. You know that the man is gone, or must be on his way to disappearing back into the shadows of the streets, but you don’t move. You won’t move. You’re scared to be in a place of vision, and you’re even more terrified to have to face Gally now after his conversation with that man. What does this all mean? What kind of mess is Gally caught up in?

“Y/N, you can…” He shifts in his chair and suddenly you lock eyes with him, only seeing that brilliant flash of green, “He’s gone.”

You get up and slide back into the front seat, your huff of breath from cramped areas and tight movements brings a small gust of fog to your vision. “I don’t want to ask but…”

“Then don’t.” He suddenly leans in very, very close to you, almost past you perhaps, his shoulder against your chin and his arm around the front of you. You hear the passenger door click and then swing open, letting in chilly air of the frosty night. “It’s none of your business anyway.”

“Gally…”

“Just,” he sighs, “Please, don’t make me tell you to go again, I’ve done that enough today.”

You consider cussing at him, telling him that whatever bull-crap he’s gotten mixed up in is not worth it. You consider taking him inside, sitting his own punk ass down, and making him tell you everything. But, of course, you can’t. You’ve only known him for a couple of days. You’re not his… you’re not his friend. Just his tutor.

You jump from the car in frustration that you lack courage in doing what you should do, and then you slam his car door. Not with full strength, but just more than enough to show that you’re agitated. Pissed. You catch his stare at you, he looks annoyed. With you or himself? You’ll never know.

Once you walk inside your house, after fumbling with your keys for a minute or two, shaking from anger and fear, you turn around to close the door; expecting to see Gally waiting in his car. But he isn’t. His car is gone, and your heart plummets with disappointment. You angrily throw your things by the entrance of your room and huff out of frustration when you walk through the open kitchen into the dining area.

“Hun? You alright?”

You turn, startled, and realise the voice only belongs to your mother. She smiles at you, knife in hand hovering over vegetables on a chopping board. “You sound… upset.”

You shake your head, “I’m just…” Your fingers go to your forehead as you push back a few strands of your hair away from your face, “It doesn’t matter. Really. Just a bit of an off day.”

“Would that have anything to do with Teresa?”

You frown and hold her stare for a moment too long, “No… But what makes you say that?”

She continues to chop the capsicum and onion, “She called earlier asking for you, she sounded worried.”

You look at your mother, almost dumbly, and then reach into your pocket for your cell. Three missed calls from Teresa, but no voice messages left behind to explain. You walk towards your room, leaving your mom to her cooking, and once you’re inside you close the door behind you. Lying on the bed, your head resting against a few pillows, you press dial.

It goes through a few rings, crackles, and then a voice echoes on the other side. “Y/N!”

“Teresa, hey, sorry I missed your calls. Everything okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, everything’s okay, I just wanted to talk to you. I was wondering if… Well,” she pauses and something in your gut flutters anxiously, “I’m just wondering if everything is okay with you.”

“Everything’s fine,” you say, trying to sound cheerful, or at least not confused.

“It’s just… you seem to be a bit  _different_  lately.”

You swallow, “Different how?”

“You’ve always said yes to a milkshake after school, no matter your workload. And today as well… you just seem more distant.”

Your eyes dart over your room anxiously, trying to think over your words carefully. But something makes you hesitant; you don’t want to lie to Teresa. She’s been such a good friend over the years of high school, and if anything was ever up or odd, you always went to her first. “I’ve just had a lot on my plate, more than usual. I’m sorry if it seems like I’m shutting you out or becoming more distant, I’ve just been super busy.”

“Busy doing what?”

The crackle of minor static between your phone and her phone heightens in intensity, as if it’s challenging, no, daring you to speak up. Daring you to lie to this friend of yours, a friend of yours that’s been there for you for years on end. “It’s hard to explain.”

“And there you go again.”

You frown, “Huh?”

“This new thing of vague answers! What’s with that? You never answer clearly anymore.”

“What?”

“Like with that whole ‘school stuff’ thing. It was an answer to almost everything, and now you can’t even directly explain what’s going on!” You hear her sigh over the phone, switching the device from one ear to the other. “I just don’t want you to think that you have to hide stuff from me. You’re my best friend, Y/N.”

“I’m not hiding anything; I keep telling you guys its school stuff because it is!”

There’s no reply for a few seconds, “Alright, I’m sorry that I bothered you. I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

You swallow nervously, “We can hang out tomorrow after school?”

“Really?”

“Of course. Milkshakes and fries?”

“As per usual, with Newt and Thomas?”

“Yeah, that’d be cool.”

You two talk for a little while longer about homework and teachers, especially the newest cuter addition who teaches you Math. You soon find yourself becoming too sleepy to talk, and so does Teresa, so you bid her a good night before sinking into your pillow.


	6. Chapter 6

You slide into the booth your friends chose after ordering your food just in time to hear yet another dirty joke from Minho. Turns out Minho’s track practice was cancelled, so he could make it to your little gathering for very unhealthy food; which he disagrees with but still snacks on, on the odd occasion.

After a few topics of conversation, one bubbles up that you didn’t quite expect. “Do you lot want to go check out the football game this Friday night?” Newt waggles his eyebrows, “I’ve got myself a girl to introduce you to.”

Everyone cheers enthusiastically, a couple slap him on the back even. And everyone agrees that it would be a good idea, all except for Thomas. “I don’t know, some of those guys would get pissy if I showed up.”

You raise an eyebrow, “How come?”

“Because I’m from the lacrosse team. I know it doesn’t make sense but we’ve had beef with them for the longest time. Plus, this kid called Gally has it out for me.”

You blink slowly, almost forgetting that Gally would be there at the game. In the game, actually. You go to say something along the lines of a question as to why Gally would “have it out for him” but Minho cuts you off. “Oh yeah I forgot about that time he tripped you up in the hallway.”

“Or when he hid your clothes after Phys Ed.” Newt adds.

“He really did that?” You ask without thinking. You might have thought that he’d do stuff like that before, but for some reason, you don’t think he’d be the type of person to just actively go around and bully someone. Would he?

Thomas eyes you for a second, “Well, yeah. Have you seen him? He looks like the kind who would.”

“I… I guess, I just thought those kinds of things didn’t really happen in real life.” You know it was a weak save, but some kind of save nonetheless.

Thomas turns to Newt, “He’ll probably be too busy with the game to notice me anyway, so I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll come, don’t worry.”

Newt grins, “Awesome!”

Suddenly your phone starts to ring, so you slip out of the booth unnoticed amongst all the chatter and eating. You stop walking until your outside the burger place and answer your phone. “Gally, what’s up?” The words feel strange on your tongue as you remember the weird sort of fight you had last night.

“I… I know you’re just supposed to be my tutor but, I’m in a bit of trouble.” His voice is slightly worn and crackly, like he’s struggling to just talk.

“What kind of trouble? Are you hurt?”

“Well… Yeah, I guess I am. I just need a place to crash, and I wouldn’t ask you if I had nowhere else to go.”

You swallow and glance back at the gang through the window; Thomas catches your eyes, but only for a second. You turn away. Can you let him stay the night? You’re not sure. No, you know your parents would say no in a heartbeat. And you have only known Gally for a few days… Would this be a bad choice? Let some Senior sleep in your room? In a matter of seconds, you make your decision. One reason for becoming a tutor was to help people. If Gally needs help, that’s what you’ll give him. “Where are you?”

“Your house.”

“I’ll be there right away,” you start to move but stop immediately, “Can you just answer me honestly on one thing?” You wait for a reply but it doesn’t come, “Does this have anything to do with the guy from last night?”

A breath. A sniff. “No.”

You say goodbye and then hang up the phone, you then quickly dash back inside to grab the rest of your things.

“Everything alright?” Thomas asks, eyebrows creased worrisomely.

“Yeah, yeah everything’s cool, just got some stuff I need to sort out.” You sling your bag over your shoulder and wave them all a goodbye, “Thanks for the hang out, I’ll see you on Friday for the game!” You’re not sure if that’s a risky move but it will keep them happy if you keep trying to meet up with them. At least you hope it will.

It’s not a far walk to your house, and soon you’re in Gally’s presence. He wears the same jacket that signs off on his apparent coolness, a beany, and… A black eye.

“You’ve got a black eye.”

“Thanks for letting me know, I hadn’t noticed.” He rolls his eyes.

You cross your arms over your chest, “You want a place to sleep? Don’t be a smart ass.”

He frowns, eyebrows knitting together, “I… It’s been a long damn day. I’m sorry.”

You step in closer and feel the wariness of your closeness emit from his body. You touch the skin around the purple bruise, “I’ve got some ice for that, it must be painful.” You lead him inside the house and up to your room where he puts away a backpack of stuff deep into your closet.

After you hand him an icepack, you clean your room up a little just to keep yourself busy. You don’t really want to think how he could have gotten that, but you’re sure it has something to do with that man, even if he said it didn’t. What else could have caused that?

“Your parents alright with me staying over?” His voice is still gruff, but you can sense a lot of exhaustion within it.

“I haven’t asked, and I’m not going to.” You turn to look at him, “You’re just going to have to be as quiet as possible. Alright?”

“Where will I sleep?”

You set down a box of things near the window seat, “In here, I have a spare mattress under my bed. My parents never enter without knocking first. And, I can steal some dinner from you when they go off to watch some TV. Also, they sleep in the bedroom downstairs because they can’t be bothered climbing stairs after chilling out for so long on the couch beforehand.”

“I can’t use a spare room?”

“And have one of them casually waltz in on you while you’re in there?”

“If they don’t use the upstairs part of the house as much…”

You sigh, “Look, I’d just feel better if you slept in a room I can control. Like I said, this is my area and I have my rules that even they agree to follow.” You lean in over the window seat to unlatch the window doors before pushing them both wide open, “why are you acting as if sleeping in here is the worst thing in the world?”

Gally sighs as he sits onto the floor, back against your bedframe, “Alright, alright, I’ll sleep in here.” He rubs the back of his neck, “And it’s not the worst thing in the world, I just don’t want to be a pain in the ass by invading your room. But if you think it’s the best way to go then okay, you’re the boss.”

You sit down on your bed and look at the texts on your phone from the group chat; all of them talking about what time to meet and where for the game on Friday. You open your mouth to tell Gally that you’ll see him playing football but then think better of it, maybe that might be weird for him. You are just his tutor.

“Can we listen to some music?” Gally asks quietly, his knees pulled up to his chest.

You quickly connect your speaker to your phone and then play the same album you’ve been listening to over the past month, the one you listened to with Gally. He smiles at your choice, which you knew he would.

“Y/N, about last night… I’m sorry you had to be around for that.”

You feel as though you sink further into your mattress, “I… It’s alright, I won’t say anything about it to anyone. You can trust me.”

“It’s not that, half the town knows me and my family anyway –they wouldn’t be surprised if they heard something like that.” He shakes his head, his arms hugging his legs tighter than before, “I saw your face after he left, you were scared. I didn’t mean to scare you like that,” suddenly he turns to face you, one of his hands resting on your mattress in some kind of urgency, “You know that right? I would never mean to scare you, or hurt you. So I’m sorry.”

You’re not too sure how to reply to that, so all you do is nod. He nods back.

You both turn to your textbooks and study together even though the subjects are not the same. But you help each other, and the thoughts of the mysterious man slowly disappear as the night goes on.

* * *

Later that night once Gally’s been fed and his bed has been made, you put down your homework and crawl into your bed. Silence fills the room, especially after you turn the lights off. But you manage to muster up enough courage to speak. “Gally?”

“Yeah?”

“If it wasn’t that guy, then who was it?”

“Who was what?”

You turn onto your side so you face him, even if the only light comes from the hallway outside, barely seeping through under the door, you can still make out most of his face. “Who was it that gave you that black eye?”

“It’s… hard to explain.”

“Okay.” Minutes go by in a deep silence, “Are you okay?”

“I-  
He doesn’t seem to finish his sentence. You see him shake a little underneath his quilts, the lack of breath escaping his body. You know he’s crying because that’s exactly how you would have imagined him to cry; so nobody would notice.

You practically roll out of your bed and then onto the floor next to him, and reach out to him for a hug without saying anything. He doesn’t quite grasp what you’re doing until your arms are around him. He hesitates, but soon he embraces you too. His chest shakes and his fingers press hard against your back, you keep silent and he seems to appreciate that.  

The sound of shuffling and blankets moving pass over, and soon you both fall asleep in your own beds to the quiet rain and the steady breathing you both make.

* * *

“Y/N! You do have school today; you know that right?” Your Mom’s voice echoes into your room and you’re up and awake in a matter of milliseconds.

When you move quickly from your bed, your foot gets stuck in wrapped up sheets and you fall onto the floor with a loud thump. You hear your Mom asking if you’re okay but you haven’t got time to reply; Gally needs to get out of here as soon as possible. You shake him awake, his green eyes flash open and soon become just as wide as yours as you hear your Mom’s footsteps climb the stairs.

You pull him up with much effort and practically shove him into your wardrobe, his face still half-sleepy. You stare at him for a moment as your hand leaves his chest, you try and calm your breathing as you motion for him to be absolutely silent as your fingers press against your lips. You shut the wardrobe and slide his mattress back underneath your bed.

Your Mom knocks on the door, and while you start opening your drawers on the other side of the room you say, “Yeah?”

The door swings open, “Oh, so you are awake. Next time I’d like a reply, especially when I hear weird noises.” She turns to go but then hesitates, “What was that, by the way?”

You blink as you pull out underwear and other clothing to make up an outfit for today, “I… you’re shouting scared me; I fell out of my bed.”

She laughs lightly, “Well next time be up  _before_  I start to shout at you.” She takes a step towards the doorway when the smallest noise, like a moving coat-hanger or shuffling of clothes comes from within your wardrobe.

She frowns, “Did you hear something?”

You try your hardest to keep your poker-face on, “No… why?”

She narrows her eyes at you for a moment, like she’s scanning you for a sign –a sign that you’re lying maybe. You’re not sure, but those few seconds were the most frightening seconds of your life. “Never mind then, make sure you have breakfast on your way out. I’ve got to take your Father to work because his car broke down yesterday so I’ll see you later on. Okay?”

You try to smile as normally as possible, and keep the relief off your face that they’re leaving; which will make things way easier for you and Gally. “No problem, see you tonight.”

You wait until her footsteps disappear from the staircase and her car to leave the driveway before you even walk near the wardrobe.

When you slide the doors open you see pure terror on Gally’s face. “That,” he shakes his head, “that was the most horrifying minute of my life.”

You attempt to pull him out of the wardrobe, especially since he refuses to move himself; convinced that if he does your Mom will come racing back to pour her wrath on him. “Gally, the car is  _gone_ , please come out! We’re going to be late!” You grab onto his arm and tug, but he’s a lot stronger than you thought. “Gally, don’t be such a baby!”

“Alright!” He steps out and races to the window to check for the missing car himself, “Alright. It’s all okay.”

You giggle heartily, “Didn’t you tell me once that you’ve had someone chase you out of their house before? With a gun?”

Gally pouts as he picks his backpack up, “Maybe.”

“So  _that_ , hiding in my wardrobe, was terrifying?”

“Yes! The suspense of waiting to find out if she was going to whip open those doors and call for her husband was horrible!”

You shake your head as you laugh harder, “Why on Earth did you make that noise then!”

He frowns, eyebrows drawing in close together, “Doesn’t matter.”

You follow him out of your bedroom and manage to stop him from entering the bathroom, “You’re not showering until you tell me.”

He looks up to the roof, “There was a huge spider.”

Your eyes widen, “A spider in my room!” You look at him intensely, “You have to kill it.”

“No way! I’m not going anywhere near that  _thing_.”

“Gally, I can’t have a spider in my room!”

He looks at you seriously, eyes piercing but nervous. “I… I don’t like spiders.”

“Well neither do I.”

“Can’t you just get someone else to kill it later? Like after school or something?”

“What if it hides someplace else and we can’t find it? I won’t be able to sleep knowing that there could be a spider hidden in my room.”

Gally looks to the side and then over your head into the bathroom, and in one quick movement he slides past you. You manage to stumble into the bathroom with him, but he quickly grabs a hold of you and starts to push you back out.

You push against him with all your strength, “There’s no way you are forcing me out of my own bathroom!” You use the last of your strength to shove him violently, he slips and pulls you down with him onto the cold bathroom floor.

Thankfully he doesn’t hit his head because otherwise you would feel extremely terrible, but you do have him trapped underneath you.

He twists his body and then pushes you off of him, keeping you pinned to the floor instead. “You are seriously crazy.”

You grin evilly up at him, “And you’re seriously crazy for thinking you could beat me!” You roll out from underneath him and then jump into the shower, you turn the cold water on full blast and grab the removable shower head and spray him.

“Y/N!” He holds his hands up in front of his face and comes towards you. You squeal as you try to slip out of the shower to dodge his incoming hands but miss your chance. He traps you between him and the shower wall, and easily takes the shower hose out of your hands.

“You’re so going to get it now,” he holds it up high out of your reach, him being extremely tall gives him quite the advantage. You try to reach for it but instead get practically drowned in cold water. You blindly push at his chest, and your heart flutters weirdly when you feel the pulsing muscle under his shirt.

“Say you’re sorry for shoving me and soaking me!”

You laugh but your mouth gurgles with all the water pouring down your face, “I’m sorry! Really, truly sorry!”

You hear the tap behind Gally turn off and the shower head click back into its place on the wall. You try to wipe the water from your eyes as best as possible but Gally’s face is still quite blurry and muddled, however you notice he holds something out for you. A towel. You thank him and dry your face as you both step out of the shower.

You put the towel down and look at yourself and him in the bathroom mirror, you both look like drowned rats. But you laugh, and so does he.

“I don’t think I need a shower anymore.” He dries off his jet black hair with a towel, drops of water still speckled across his forehead and lips. “So I might have time to get rid of this monstrous spider then.”

You smile up at him and he smiles back, and then walks passed you out of the bathroom. “You might need to change your shirt though; I can see your bright pink bra!” He turns only for just a second to wink at you and then disappears into your bedroom.

You turn as bright pink as your bra and do as he says; change your outfit.


	7. Chapter 7

You’re already searching for Teresa and the gang as you walk over to the football field stands; a mass of people have already claimed their seats. You walk across the front, the smell of hotdogs and other junk food stink out the place already.

You finally spot them and make your way up towards them, comfortable seating in the middle. They all greet you, and you instantly get introduced to Newt’s new girlfriend. She smiles and greets you kindly, so far, that’s enough for your approval.

You take a seat next to Thomas and fight off a hitch in your breathing when you see how nice he looks. You mentally slap yourself,  _don’t even think about it._  But you can’t help it, he smells nice too and he already bought you some food and drink.

You both talk for a bit, mostly about school but also about football. You only attended one game before with Minho and Newt, it wasn’t the greatest thing ever. You remember seeing Gally out on the field though, you remember noticing how well he played with his team. This time you’re sure you’ll find it more exciting now that you actually know Gally.

Everyone starts to cheer as your school’s football team runs onto the field; chants echo throughout the stands.

Teresa nudges you and nods over to the boys as they prepare for the game, “That one, number 14, he’s the one who’s been harassing Tom.” You stare out to unfortunately see Gally wearing that number. “Technically most of the team harass all the lacrosse members, but the most heated is between Gally and Tom.”

You don’t reply but instead watch the field. You focus on Gally; what would make him act like that towards Thomas? It just doesn’t add up in your head. Sure, Gally might seem to have that stereotypical jock persona, but just because it seems that way doesn’t mean it should be that way.

A few minutes into the game, you notice Thomas gets up from his seat and leaves –probably going off to refill his drink or to the toilets, so you take this opportunity to continue the conversation from before.

You turn to Teresa, “Do you know why Gally and Thomas are fighting?”

She swallows a mouthful of her drink before replying, after checking if Thomas is still around to hear, “The football team in general don’t like the lacrosse team because of how they think they’ve taken over the sport side of the school, something stupid like that.” She pauses to slurp from her drink again, “But between Gally and Tom? Something to do with Gally’s older brother, but I don’t know what.”

“He has an older brother?” Your eyes widen and you mentally scold yourself for seeming way too interested, you keep forgetting that you’re supposed to act as if you don’t know Gally at all. It’s frustrating, but you definitely know now that you have to keep it a secret if Thomas has been fighting with him…

Thankfully Teresa doesn’t seem to take too much notice of your question anyway, “Yeah, he did. His name was Justin.”

_Did? Was?_  “Where… where is he now?”

Teresa looks at you, “You don’t know?”

You shake your head.

“Last year, around November I think, Justin got shot on the street. He died instantly, it was terrible really.”

Your mouth drops, “How come I didn’t know? The school… The school would have said something right?”

Teresa shakes her head, “They didn’t want to bring much attention to it. A lot of the staff thought it was the school’s responsibility, even though he’d graduated a year before. I guess they thought it might degrade their reputation which is a terrible excuse. But what’s even worse is that there was no news story on it or anything. No investigation.”

“That’s… that’s horrible.” Suddenly it feels as though everything has been flipped upside down. You’re not sure how to feel or how to react. “Why was there no investigation?” You hear the words tumble out of your mouth but the rising panic makes them sound distant, far away. 

“He was just someone from the “hood”. White trash.” Teresa pauses to roll her eyes, “That’s their reasoning anyway, I think it’s a shitty thing to do. Not care enough about someone dying on the streets because their family didn’t have the best reputation.”

“I…” You suddenly stand up from your seat just as the game begins. The man at Gally’s car window flashes through your mind. “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom, I’ll be back in a sec.” You hurry past Teresa and the rest of them, and then make your way to the toilets. There’s no one around because the game just started, which you’re quite thankful for.

You turn on the tap in one of the sinks and splash your face, trying to rid of the horrible feeling that’s inside you. How could you have not known? “You’re so stupid…” You whisper to yourself. All this time, Gally’s been having to deal with an unjust death of his own damn brother and you’ve been worrying about friends! About tutoring him!

You grip the sides of the sink and stare into the mirror at yourself. What are you supposed to do now? Keep tutoring Gally? The last time you tried to help someone in a lot of trouble… the police got involved and you were told to never have contact with that person again.

You make your way back to the seats, and when you sit, the answer is clearer than ever before. This isn’t going to be like last time.

* * *

After the game, you and the gang wait around for Newt to talk to some of the football team members. Apparently he’s a big fanboy, and they don’t seem to mind him even if he’s best friends with one of their enemies.

Teresa eyes off one of the other football players and you mentally take note to ask her about it later. Gally wanders over to you when he notices your friends rather busy with the rest of his team. “I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight.” You notice a grin on his face and come to adore it, and that it’s there because of you.

You turn your full attention to him, “Well, here I am.” You smile, “I didn’t willfully come to see you play though, sorry. I was practically dragged over here by my friends.”

He shakes his head and laughs, but the image of him crying over his dead brother invades your mind. It’s such a shock to you that you have to take a moment to take in a deep breath.

“Quite the heartbreaker you are.” He turns just in time to see Thomas settling in right beside you, his arm touching your arm. Gally goes rigid, his jaw hardens and you notice clenched fists by his side.

A beeping noise resounds from Thomas’ phone, he looks at the text and then replies by tapping his thumbs over the mobile screen. “I’ve got to go,” he tells you, and out of nowhere pulls you into a close hug. The whiff of his hair and cologne makes you a little light-hearted, but you manage to shake whatever feeling that comes from that away. “I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“Yeah,” you smile, and then wave him goodbye as he walks away. Throughout that whole time, he doesn’t even blink Gally’s way.

Gally just stares at you instead, and you feel the harshness within it. What could you say to make him not mad with you? Would he even be mad with you? You open your mouth to say something but he cuts you off instantly, “You’re friends with  _him_?” That tone of voice answers your question.

You nod your head.

“You know then?”

You frown, and finally pull together all the courage you have left to look him in the eyes. He looks furious. The intensity of his green eyes higher than ever before. “What do you mean?”

“You know that we practically hate each other, right?”

You sigh, “I… I didn’t know until a couple of days ago.”

His expression doesn’t lighten, “He’s scum, I can’t stand him.”

You blink at the sudden change in Gally’s tone, “Whoa, hang on a second Gally.” Now it’s your turn to harden your expression, “Don’t you think that’s a little bit harsh?”

“No, I don’t think it’s a little bit harsh because that’s exactly what he is! Scum!”

A few of your friends look your way, slightly confused by Gally’s outburst… and by you conversing with him.

You look him in the eye as a warning, “Calm down,” you look to your friends and smile warmly, trying to get them to think of this as nothing. “They’re going to notice we’re talking like we know each other.”

He looks taken aback by your remark, but you’re pretty sure he was the one to make it clear that he doesn’t want anyone to know of your tutoring him. “We do know each other.”

You roll your eyes, “Yeah but I thought we agreed to not let people know that?”

He frowns, “No, no, we agreed to not let people know that you’re tutoring me. Big difference.”

You look at him and see the hurt in his eyes, and you realise your mistake. “Gally–

He narrows his eyes at you, “You don’t even…” He rubs the side of his face with his hand out of frustration and exhaustion. “Whatever.” He turns to leave but hesitates, “It’s whatever. I don’t even care if you’re friends with Thomas anyway, it’s not like  _we’re_  friends.”

You watch him go as your heart sinks deeper than you ever thought it could go.

* * *

That night you awake at 4 am with Gally’s faceless brother lying dead on some cold, dark street in your mind. You notice the pool of sweat around your body and the drops on your forehead, you scold yourself for falling asleep with your socks and sweatpants on. You find a change of pyjamas, shorts and a shirt that says: I loaf you, with a picture of a loaf of bread on it. You hope it lightens your mood, especially after today.

When you crawl back into bed you can’t wipe the image away. Justin. You think back to Gally’s room and his house, Gally and Justin’s Dad. The room that was empty, the sense of abandonment. That must have been Justin’s room.

You turn over, your face smothered by your pillow. Does Gally think you know about Justin already and never brought it up? Or does he think you don’t know? Should you know? Do you want to know? You almost let out a scream of frustration from all the questions that fill your worried brain.

But the one question that sticks out from all the rest, the one that gives you the most anxiety from them all: will Gally ever speak to you again?


	8. Chapter 8

Gally avoids you all day on Monday. As the weekend dragged on you couldn’t stop thinking about what you said over and over and… You couldn’t go to Gally, you felt as though you would be intruding. Besides, walking into the house would only flood you with thoughts of Justin. Thoughts of how you never knew of Gally’s grief.

But when Monday came you set out on a mission to find Gally and apologise, but everywhere you went you could not find him. A few of the slime-balls from last time chuckled and murmured a few ‘told you so’ remarks your way but you just chose to ignore them. They weren’t worth your concern.

So instead of searching every nook and cranny of the school, you decide to wait in the carpark. But when you get there you notice something strange, his worn down car is nowhere to be seen. You sigh out of frustration and reach for your mobile but… But decide against it. This apology has to be done in person, he can try to avoid you all he likes, but sometime he’ll have to come back to school.

At least you hope.

“Y/N?”

You turn towards the voice and realise its Thomas. You smile briefly before tucking away strands of hair behind your ear, “Hey, Thomas.”

He looks at you for a moment, and then to the carpark which is almost empty now, “Do… you need a ride? You look like you’ve been ditched.”

You bite your bottom lip and look out at the parking lot once more, hoping that Gally magically appears instead. But he doesn’t, and your left feeling even more guilty than before. You look back to Thomas, “Sure, that would be great, thanks.”

Once you’re set in motion and the radio is playing, you feel a little bit more relaxed. You try to push away thoughts of Gally and all the negative feelings as best you can, you don’t want Thomas thinking something’s up with you—that would be the last thing you needed right now.

“So you enjoyed the game last Friday?”

You nod, “Yeah, sure did!” You cringe at yourself, did that seem too enthusiastic?

You watch as Thomas spins the wheel slightly to round a corner, “I, uh… I noticed you talking with Gally. You guys know each other?”

Your breath hitches within your throat, and you fight off a gasp immediately. You weren’t sure if he would take much notice… but apparently he did. “Uh, not really, no.” You feel an incredible pain inside you, and the guilt only gets worse. “Just thought I’d get to know some of the team a little better…”

“Hmm,” Thomas looks at you for only a moment before his eyes are back on the road, “Well… I know I don’t dictate who you talk to Y/N, but I think you should stay away from him.”

You swallow nervously and look out the window instead, not wanting Thomas to see you stressing out. “I… How come?”

“Because he’s an ass.” A pause. “He’s just… not a good person. He could be dangerous.”

You frown immediately, “Dangerous?”

“Just listen to me when I tell you that Gally isn’t someone you should get close to. Stay away from him.”

You sink further into your car seat, the panic settling in. You… you’re confused. And hurt. Thomas wouldn’t say that about just anyone, there has to be a reason. Yes, Gally has been harassing him, but Thomas has also been retaliating, and you thought they were just irritating, practically harmless, pranks. Not something to be called dangerous over, so what’s going on?

The rest of the car ride home you both stay silent, an unnerving confusing silent, and all the while you hope the next corner is your street.

* * *

On Friday, after you visit home for a while, you wander over to the usual eating place that you hang at with your friends. You told them you were going to meet them there instead of catch a ride with them, which you regret because now the sky floods you with freezing cold water.

You hurry underneath shelter to shelter as you make your way down the street from your house. You wanted to go to the football game in case… in case Gally showed up for once. But you didn’t want to distract him from playing. From the last game you watched, you know that Gally loves football and you didn’t want to bring him down by showing up to tonight’s game. Suddenly though, you find yourself hoping that he showed up for the game because he hasn’t been at school for the whole week, which seriously worries you.

You slide into the booth after greeting them all, no one seems to be around the diner except for your group. Probably because of the chilly weather.

“Y/N?”

You turn your head away from the window of the booth you sit at with your friends, a slow drizzle of rain dripping down the glass. “Yeah?”

Thomas shakes his head, a laugh escapes his lips, “Where are you lately? You seem… distant.”

The others aren’t listening, instead they munch on their fries and talk about due dates and people they’re seeing. “I guess I’m just tired or something, I don’t really know.” You try to keep your reply as vague as possible, but you’re not the best liar. Although, that didn’t really  _feel_ like a lie. It’s true that you’ve been worrying over Gally but the part about being tired and not really  _knowing_ anything anymore is true.

“Yeah… I get like that too, especially after the pounding we get in lacrosse practice. Or staying up all night to finish the homework I couldn’t do because of training and working.” He laughs but you both know that it sucks to be so busy and to have so much expectation of yourself.

You’re not sure what to say next, you’ve never really been socially keen but the silence from you doesn’t seem to bother Thomas. “Hey, have you heard of this band before?” He plugs his earphones into his phone and then passes one to you. You take it and listen intently, it’s the band that you and Gally share a liking to. “I’ve only just heard about them; they sound awesome, don’t ya’ think?”

You nod, “Yeah… yeah, I’ve heard this entire album.” You want to seem enthusiastic but all the music does is remind you of Gally. Reminds you of how crap of a friend you are.  _We’re not even friends_. The words echo in your mind.

“I’m sorry,” you pull the earphone out and slip out of the booth, “I… I’ve gotta go for a walk.” You make your way towards the exit, gaining a concerned glance from Teresa, and then step outside, the rain having cleared away earlier but the air still chilly; the windows on the side of the street almost frosty. You hear the echo of your own foot steps as you wander the streets; you almost jump at the sight of your shadow moving when you pass underneath a streetlamp. You shake your head, trying to make sense of everything that’s happened lately, but it feels as though you’re way too far under.

Soon, thoughts start pouring into your head, and you wish you had stayed inside the diner. Maybe then you would have been too distracted to think.

How can Thomas act so casual after your talk on Monday? You know it’s been a few days since, and you’ve had passings in the halls or eaten lunch together, but it still doesn’t sit right. One minute Thomas is talking about school and then the next he’s warning you to stay away from Gally. It just doesn’t make sense.

You reach the end of the second block when you realise you’re not even sure where you’re going, or even of where you are right this second. You take a moment to deeply breathe in and out: why are you even out here all by yourself at night? You turn and face the direction of the diner, why leave people who are your friends because of some guy you only met a couple of weeks ago? You shake your head to rid of the thoughts and the negative feelings: if Gally says your friendship is “whatever” then, whatever. If he doesn’t want to see you or listen to you, then why fret so much?

You turn around and walk back towards the diner, feeling certain. You’re not going to let Gally trouble your thoughts anymore. If he doesn’t want to be friends then that’s on him. If he doesn’t want tutoring anymore, then that’s on him also.

Up ahead you see someone leaning on their side against the wall of the diner, their back faced towards you. The lit up red sign glows on the roof, beckoning for your return to warmth, food and friends, but something about this person makes you pause. It’s too dark to see much of the figure, and you start to wonder if you should just wait until whoever it is has left. For some reason, a feeling of both fear and curiosity overwhelms you, you take a step closer.

As you come closer you notice the stranger talking to someone else, and that someone else whispering fiercely. You stop again, that same feeling intensifying, you’re not sure if its someone from the diner, or if they’re even from around here. You take another step closer, only one, as you try to figure out what’s going on but suddenly you find yourself in the alleyway behind the diner, scrunched up against the cool, brick wall.

It’s dark, darker than it was out on the street. You thrash for a second and think about screaming as you open your mouth, but a rough hand clamps down over it and muffles the short sound that manages to escape your lips. You’re pressed harder against the wall until you cannot see anything but the leather jacket of whoever is attacking you. You push against him, twist and try to drop to the ground but he’s got you pinned.

“Y/N, stop moving for one damn second!” The voice is raspy and harsh, a whisper as fierce as whoever is talking to the stranger beside the diner. It’s unmistakable. Gally.

You stop moving suddenly, but he doesn’t let go of your mouth or back away from you and the wall. He’s so close to you it’s almost overwhelming, and you’re not even sure why he’s so panicked in the first place.

“I told you not to even go near him!” Whoever the stranger is talking to sounds much older than you thought, and you suddenly feel grateful that Gally pulled you away before you stepped right into something seemingly unpleasant. “Next time, you follow exactly what I tell you. That’s how it’s been, and how it will always be. Understand?”

The stranger sighs, but doesn’t say a word in reply.

“Good. We’ll talk again soon.”

You hear the voices disappear in the night, and one person walk briskly passed the alleyway you’re cramped up in with Gally.

You feel Gally relax slightly, and you breathe heavily out of your nose as your anxiety simmers down. You suddenly feel a surge of anger run through you, of course Gally is here right now! He doesn’t show up to school when you wanted him but he shows up when you’ve decided to let him go? Typical.

You take one last shove at Gally, because why not, and soon his pressed hand over your mouth slides off and you are allowed to move away from the rough wall. You rub your shoulder and scowl over at him, “Whatever that was better have a good reason.”

Gally peers around the corner of the alley and then steps back in front of you, he coughs nervously and refuses to look you in the eyes. “I… it was nothing. Sorry.” He reaches for his backpack leaning on the wall next to you when you quickly step in front of it. He tries hard to avert his eyes from yours but your stare keeps them still.

“Can I have my backpack?”

“Can you tell me what that was all about?”

Gally shake his head, “It was nothing. Just go back into the diner.”

“How do you know I was even inside the diner?”

He rolls his eyes, “Of course you’d be in there if Thomas was.”

You cross your arms over your chest and continue to stand your ground in front of his bag. He continues to hold your stare, and suddenly lunges toward the bag. You push forwards against his body, of course Gally could win over you immediately… but your resistance makes him stop.

You sigh, “Why didn’t you come to school?” He backs off slightly as you speak, but he’s still quite close to you. It makes you feel a little nervous and unsure.

“Why do you think?”

You swallow, “Because of me? Because of our argument?”

“No!” He takes a step back, “Not… not entirely. Yeah, that pissed me off. But there’s other reasons. But its whatever. It doesn’t matter why I didn’t come.”

“Yes it does, I wanted to—  
You stop talking immediately. He looks at you curiously and you find yourself blushing, you turn your head away from him and hope he doesn’t notice. “I wanted to apologise to you about what happened, but I couldn’t because you weren’t at school.”

“Then why not just call me or come to my house?”

You look at him, “I… I don’t know. I guess I thought it wouldn’t be my place to come to your house, and I didn’t want to have this conversation over the phone.”

He raises an eyebrow. “Well, then, here’s your opportunity.”

You swallow, “I’m sorry.” You take in a breath, “I’m sorry for implying that I didn’t want to be seen with you. I misunderstood you. When you said you didn’t want anyone to know about me tutoring you I took it to mean that you didn’t want people to know that we talked as well. I was also… I was also scared about what my friends would think because they don’t think kindly towards you. Because of Thomas. I’m sorry I let that get in the way of our… our friendship. I was an idiot to think that it would matter if they knew, because it doesn’t. I was an idiot to care about what they would think because it doesn’t matter what they think.”

You had practiced over and over in your head what you were going to say to Gally, you were going to say some pathetic excuse to try and cover up what you did but as you started to talk the words just came out of your mouth. You didn’t need to think, you just spoke.

Gally looks… surprised. Overwhelmed. Unsure? You don’t know. Definitely a mix of something though, and it scares you. You hate not being able to read Gally, you never can. Not like with other people, he’s so closed off and it brings a sense of anxiety.

He scratches the side of his face and looks down at his feet, “Th-thanks. Thank you. I… I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have been a dick about you and Thomas.”

“It’s okay.”

You step aside from his bag and he picks it up, slinging it over one shoulder. “You and Thomas… are you guys like, dating or something?”

You feel so surprised at him for asking that, that you don’t even respond immediately. “I… No, we’re not.”

“Oh.”

He turns to leave but you call out to him, “Why?”

He stops for a moment and doesn’t say anything for a while. “I wanted to know. And I’m… I’m glad. I’m glad you’re not dating him.”

You don’t ask him why, even though it’s on the tip of your tongue, you just don’t. You don’t know why. You’re curious as anything… but you just don’t. “Gally?”

He turns around, “Yeah?”

“You want to catch up on our tutoring sessions tomorrow?”

You think you see him smile but you’re not sure, it’s too dark to confirm if he is. “I have football practice in the morning, but I can do it in the afternoon.”

“Sounds good.”

“Meet you here at the diner? 2 o’clock?”

You smile this time, “Sure. Yeah, that’d be cool.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Heavy-ish, uncensored swearing this chapter!

You’re at the diner as the time hits 2.05 pm. You walk inside, it’s quiet except for the few pairs of people having a late lunch. You realise that 2pm is the perfect time to eat out because most people have already eaten. You take your pick at a table, slide into the booth so your close to the window, and watch people on the street walk by as you wait for Gally.

When it hits 2.20 you consider texting him, but the door to the diner swings open. You watch from your seat as Gally walks in, freshly showered after practice; wearing his leather jacket.

He practically collapses on the booth opposite of you, “Sorry, practice ran over time this morning and then my car broke down.” He messes with his hair after shoving his bag to the side.

“Jeez, really?”

He chuckles, “She’s had it coming, I’ve been putting off fixing her up for a while.”

“You can fix cars?”

He almost looks surprised. “Of course I can. You know my Dad owns his own mechanic shop, right? I work there sometimes.”

You shake your head, “I didn’t know that.”

Silence falls between you two, and you notice Gally uncomfortably shifting in his seat as he stares down at the menu. You get the strange feeling of… awkwardness. And you’re not sure why, especially now. This boy has slept in your room, and you didn’t feel awkward then!  

“Is something the matter?” You ask, dropping your menu on the table for the moment.

“No… nothing’s the matter.” He shrugs as he says that, and then continues to stare at the menu.

“Are you sure? I mean, it might just be me but—

“I don’t really go out with people often, it’s been a while.” His eyes keep to the words on his menu as he continues to read. Or maybe just have something other than your face to look at. You think of Justin, and you wish you hadn’t. “So sorry if I’m… I don’t know…”

“It’s fine, I was just concerned if you were… maybe still upset with me?”

He smiles to himself it seems, “For the record, I’m not. But I just realised that I could totally use that against you in the future,” he looks up for a second, “Remember that time when you didn’t want people to know we were friends?”

You both laugh, almost outrageously, and the awkwardness subsides. Fades into the background until it vanishes completely. You both order your meals whilst chattering over everything; school, homework, awkward first dates. Life. And after a lot of pestering and pleading, Gally allows you to take a Snapchat of you and him together eating lunch. It’s inconspicuous however; subtle. He only gives you permission if his face isn’t in the shot, which is good enough for you. If nobody was in the shot at all, people might think you’re eating out by yourself and that just defeats the whole purpose of a Snapchat story update.

“So how much of that essay did you complete before handing it in?” You half-joke with him, but secretly you really want to know. You feel bad that the spat between you two kept you from tutoring him, and if he got a bad grade you know you won’t forgive yourself.

“I finished it all, surprisingly.” He takes a sip of his drink, “Must’ve had a good teacher,” he says with a wink attached, and you suddenly feel proud but also… something else.

“Did you get your grade back?”

He smiles, kind of smugly but you can also see genuine happiness. “B-.”

“Gally!” You shout in a sudden burst of excitement, “That’s awesome!”

He looks around at the other people in the diner with embarrassment written all over his face, but you don’t apologise because you totally have a right to be extremely proud of him. “From the D bracket to the B bracket? Seriously insane. I’m  _so_  proud of you!”

He smiles softly but a weird look crosses his face, only for a split second but you suddenly feel like you’ve said the wrong thing. You go to apologise, or ask if you said something wrong, but he speaks instead.

“It’s alright I guess.” He drinks the last of his drink and leaves enough cash on the table to cover both of your meals. You try to persuade him to let yourself pay for your half but he refuses, and then you both head off towards Gally’s house.

“I made it half-way before she just decided to die on me, typical.” He comments. “We’ll have to take the train, my Dad already came and picked up the car. Is that alright?”

You smile, “Course it is.”

* * *

Soon, after an interesting ride on the train, you’re back at Gally’s house. You remember the first time you walked in thinking this place was a little bit… abandoned. Now, you know why. When you climb the stairs and notice all the empty picture frames again, you think back to when you first noticed it and how strange you thought it was. Justin arises, and you understand. You understand why this place feels so empty. And you try to shake away that feeling.

You walk into the familiarity of Gally’s bedroom, and as you do he closes the door behind him. You drop your bag on the floor by his bed before you take a seat on the end of it, just like last time. You feel a sense of guilt again, about Justin. You wonder if you should tell Gally that you know. Would he be mad if you brought Justin up? Or would he be upset that you didn’t know before? You decide against it, bringing up someone’s passed loved one is never an easy task; and it would seem inconsiderate to bring him up now after the fight you both had.

You tug at your sleeves nervously, and watch as Gally drops himself onto the bed and then lays back, the mattress dipping with his weight, “Is it okay if we don’t jump back into studying just yet?” He mutters, a yawn presenting itself, “I think practice killed me today.”

You smile softly, stifling a bit of a laugh, of course Gally would hold out on studying until the last minute possible. “Sure.” You watch as he closes his eyes, the green disappearing under his lids. You watch as he breathes steadily, his chest rising and lowering in a soft rhythm. You think back to your first visit here, how the mysterious boy was so soft and gentle even then; even when you didn’t really know him at all.

His eyes blink open, slowly, and he finds yours, “You staring at me?”

You instantly frown and look away, a blush rising onto your cheeks, “What? No…”

Suddenly Gally slides over to edge of the bed slightly and gestures to the empty space next to him, “It’s a lot more comfortable over here.” Although you see his tiredness on his face, you also see a slight tinge of embarrassment.

You bite your lip as you think. Lying next to Gally? It’s harmless, right? It’s not like… it’s not like anything is going to happen. You trust Gally, and you’re surprised at how much you do. You scoot yourself over so you lie beside him, he closes his eyes and so do you. You think about the past few weeks and only just manage to stifle a sigh. It must have been the craziest few weeks of your life.

But you don’t want to think about it, not now. It’ll only lead to worry and concern, to Justin, to the man Gally talked to in the car, to Thomas saying how dangerous Gally is… You need a break from thinking about those things, so you try your best to shut your mind off. To sink into some peace from your own brain and the countless thoughts that constantly whir through it.

Silence floats by for a while, and its nice. You’ve never really had much silence on your own, there was always something at the back of your mind worrying you or irritating you. But you realise, in this moment, that Gally brings you this peace. Like the time at the picnic table where you listened to the album, somehow he seems to bring a pause to your life so you can replenish yourself. You love that he can do that.

You feel a slight change in the mattress, and hear as it groans slightly. It moves with changing weight, and you think nothing of it. But then you get a whiff of Gally’s scent, the one you know a lot more now… What once smelt like mystery and uncertainty now smells like familiarity and comfort, and you like that you’ve grown close to this boy. Even if Thomas thought to warn you against it.

You open your eyes and you find yourself staring right into Gally’s. He blinks for a moment, pinkness growing again on his cheeks. “Thought you fell asleep.”

You swallow, not feeling panicked or even nervous, “I could’ve… It’s so quiet. Totally not like my house.”

Gally frowns, “Your house is okay, I mean, you’ve got a whole level to yourself practically.”

You laugh a little, “Yeah, but, my parents are always cackling downstairs at the TV.”

Gally smiles at this as he remembers his night over, “Ah yes, that is true.”

You breathe in and out slowly, the tiredness that overcame you settling in. “I think I am actually kind of tired.”

Gally blinks, holding his eyes closed for just a moment before they open again, “So am I.”

You both lie there a moment longer, not closing your eyes. For some reason you don’t want to, and neither does Gally, so that makes you feel a little better. His hand moves from his side, and you feel his fingers softly glide over the side of your face. This intimacy… and affection is so unlike Gally, but you welcome it, and he knows you do by your smile.

Your skin feels electric after his touch, and once his hand is gone you notice your eager for more. And it frightens you a little, you didn’t expect this kind of feeling at all, but maybe that’s why it’s so prominent. You find yourself leaning in closer to him, and his hand now resting over the side of your waist.

You reach out your own hand to his face, you watch as his breathing quickens only slightly with your touch. You’re not too sure what you’re doing, or why exactly, but you know that this… whatever it is between you and Gally, is something new and exciting. You want more, and you feel that he does too.

But suddenly, a loud crashing noise startles you both so much that you’re apart in seconds. You sit up in his bed, and Gally leaps out immediately towards the window. He curses at whatever he sees and makes a run for it downstairs and out towards the front yard; you follow close behind him.

As you reach the front porch you see a group of people, maybe 3 or 4, making their escape away from Gally’s car. You don’t see their faces, as they’re mostly covered by dark hoodies. The scene in front of you ignites a sort of panic you wish you didn’t have to experience.

When you reach the car, it is not the same car you remember. The tyres are slashed, the review mirrors are broken and two of the windows are smashed inwards. You stare at the mess that was once Gally’s car with an open mouth and widened eyes.

Gally runs closer to the scene immediately. But you continue to stand where you are. Unsure of what to do or what to say.

“Shit!” He examines one side, and then the next, “ _Fucking shit fuck_!”

“Gally?” You walk over to the other side of the car where he stands, hands around the back of his head. Your eyes immediately find what he’s looking at, the message spray-painted onto the side of his car:  _where’s our money?_

You try to comfort Gally by placing a hand on his shoulder but he quickly shrugs it off and steps away from you, “This is bullshit!”

“Why…” You swallow your fear, “Why would anyone do this?” You turn to face him and ignore the images of mysterious men flashing through your mind or the dead body of Gally’s brother, you can no longer make assumptions. “What are you messed up in, Gally?”

He shoots a glare towards you, one you never thought you’d see from him. “It’s none of your damn business, Y/N.”

You bite the inside of your lip, the harshness in his voice hurts but you can’t just let him push you aside again. Again and again, he always does this. “I don’t care if you don’t think it’s any of my damn business; I’m not just going to piss off like usual. You’re telling me what’s going on,  _now_!”

He stops pacing in front of the car, his shoulders drooping, “I can’t… I can’t do that.” Suddenly he crouches and then sits, his knees pulled in close to his chest. His arms rest over his knees as he stares at the message on the car. You feel your phone buzzing but you ignore the vibration that crawls down your leg.

You see the wetness in his eyes as he tries to wipe the tears from his face, so you find yourself sitting down beside him; arms wrapped around him and your head leaning on his shoulder. “But I want to help you, Gally. I want to help because I care.”

“I know you care,” he wipes his face again, “I don’t know why you do, but I know.”

You loosen your hold until only one of your arms touches his shoulders.

He clears his throat, “I’ve wanted to tell you. I’ve wanted to tell you so much shit but you’re so nice and you’ve got your own life, I don’t want to ruin that. I don’t want my own crap to become yours, so please. Please just let it go.” His head rests in his hands in defeat, and his body shakes with the tears that spill down his cheeks.

“I’m not leaving. I’m not leaving until you tell me.” You sigh, “I’m thankful that you want to keep me out of whatever this is but sometimes, Gally, you just can’t take on everything by yourself.”

He hesitates, it’s clearly seen on his face and through his body language. He doesn’t want to tell you, but deep down he knows its time; if he wants you as a friend, he has to tell you. He begins, not really looking into your eyes, “When my brother died…”


	10. Chapter 10

He hesitates, it’s clearly seen on his face and through his body language. He doesn’t want to tell you, but deep down he knows its time; if he wants you as a friend, he has to tell you. He begins, not really looking into your eyes, “When my brother died…”

“Justin?”

He blinks and sniffs back the oncoming tears, “Yeah…” he nods, “I wasn’t sure if you knew about him or not—

“I didn’t,” you feel your heart race suddenly, “not when I first started tutoring you. But one of my friends told me about it… I’m sorry I didn’t know. If I had, then maybe I could have been someone you could have talked to or—

He cuts in, his voice budding onto emotional, “No, no it’s fine. You… you treated me like I was just some normal guy from school. You didn’t treat me like I was that person who’s grieving for his dead brother. You treated me just like somebody else, and I needed that.” He breathes slowly, wiping the tears from his face. He takes a long breath in before he continues, “When Justin died… the police didn’t really look into it that much. They concluded he was shot, and because of his reputation, they just assumed it was a part of his…” he stops talking for a moment. You can see in his eyes that he doesn’t want to continue. “A part of his drug dealing. They thought it was an attack from an enemy gang or something. They didn’t have any real leads, and to be honest, I don’t think they gave a damn enough to  _want_  to find those leads. Because he was a drug dealer.”

“I guess I just managed to push pass it for a while, I just tried to accept that he was gone and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. But then Justin’s phone rang one night.” He swallows deeply, “I picked it up, I don’t know why, but I did. And I heard someone threatening Justin over the phone— something about him owing money and if he doesn’t get it to them they’ll break his neck.”

You grow wide-eyed, “Like that man? In the car, when you took me home that night?”

“Exactly the guy. I went to meet up with him, out of curiosity; it was stupid. But I had this feeling that maybe I could get some sort of justice or peace if I found out who killed him. And why. And… when I was looking, searching for this other life that he had, I felt closer to him. I felt like, in a way, I was bringing him back. It’s stupid, but at the time that was how I felt.”

“That’s not stupid, Gally. It actually makes a lot of sense.” You pause, trying to find the right words, “Justin… he was gone from your life so suddenly, you wouldn’t really know how to process that.” You look at him for a moment, and he looks at you, at first you think that maybe he might tell you to piss off, but instead it’s as if he’s hanging onto your every word. “So by going after these things, these things that were left of him, you were able to process his death and maybe… understand. Grieve properly for him.” You find yourself holding him again, tighter than before, “I’m so sorry, Gally. That you had to do that alone.”

It’s as if he’s in disbelief by your words, and you’re not sure why, and it pains you to think that maybe no one has ever really shown him any kind of care or love at all. “Thank you… Thanks, Y/N.”

You hold onto him, but when your leg vibrates again curiosity gets the better of you, you take out your mobile from your pocket and unlock it. A message from Thomas lights up your screen, and Gally frowns down at it. “What does he want?”

You stare down at what he texted:  _we have to talk._

“I… I don’t know…”

Gally’s jaw clenches but he looks down into your eyes, a firm seriousness clinging to them, “I know we fought about Thomas before… so don’t take this the wrong way but…”

You frown, “Gally?”

“He’s… he’s dangerous, Y/N.”

You sit back a little, tilting your head, you shut off your screen, “What do you mean?”

Gally averts his eyes, staring down at the pavement instead, “Just… just don’t trust him, okay?”

You lean in front of him slightly so he looks at you again, “Why?” You think back to the conversation you had with Thomas, how he claimed that Gally was dangerous.

“He just is.” Gally looks away from you, staring at his car again, and seconds pass before he’s up from the ground, “I have to… do something about this car, before my Dad sees.” He finds his phone in his pocket and dials away.

“Who are you calling?”

He presses the phone to his ear, “Just some friends who can help.” You hear the ringing after each pause, “Maybe you should…” he sighs drops his hand to the side, his phone away from his face, “I don’t want to say this, but –

You stand up from the pavement and force a smile, “It’s okay, I understand. I’ll see you later.”  
You find your way back upstairs but pause in front of Justin’s room. The pictures on his dresser reflect a happy family, something so far from what Gally is now. Curiosity drives you forward into the room, the pictures of Gally smiling beside his brother in various different frames. You stare at them for a moment, a different Gally staring back at you, you can’t help but feel a sense of sadness seep in. You glance over the rest of the room before deciding to leave, but as you head towards the door your phone slips out of your pocket. You cringe at the small thud it makes as it bounces over the carpet. You crouch down to pick it up, but a piece of crinkled paper underneath Justin’s bed among dirty laundry that has been forgotten catches your eye, only a word is printed: W.I.C.K.E.D. You move quickly and pick both the paper and your phone up before leaving the room immediately, the feeling too overwhelming for you. You find your stuff from Gally’s room, but pause before leaving. You look out the window and see Gally still there, pacing as he talks on the phone. You think about what he said about Thomas, and wonder if it has anything to do with their constant fighting. You tap away at the keyboard on your phone and sigh, there has to be something else that you’ve missed. Two boys warning you that the other is dangerous, over a lacrosse and football argument?

Teresa replies in seconds, agreeing to pick you up.

You stare at the text for a few seconds longer, trying to calm yourself about the car and the hooded figures. They must have been sent by that man, the one that knew Justin and now has Gally in his grips. How much money did Justin even owe? You pull out the piece of paper and stare down at the scribbled letters, the rest of the paper torn on the bottom. You don’t know if you’re over analysing this, it could just be something stupid from Justin’s schooling days. You turn it over in your hands and find a number, a mobile number in the same fast scribbles of what you assume is Justin’s hand writing – looking familiar; must be similar to Gally’s.

You hear a car pull up and look out the window, and see Teresa’s dark hair in the driver’s seat. You quickly exit the house after tramping down the echoing stairway, and when you exit the front door you see her staring at Gally; him not seeming to notice. You wave him goodbye, and he waves you back, although still in another world talking to whoever it is on the phone. You jump into Teresa’s car and ignore the look she gives you.

She pulls out of his street and starts heading home, and only then do you allow the emotional wave to hit you; however still keeping it under control for now.

“Y/N… can I ask?”

You swallow, “Sure.”

“Are you seeing Gally?”

Something about the tone of her voice irritates you, but you don’t show it. Teresa is a friend, and she doesn’t know Gally like you do. Nobody does, and maybe that’s why everyone treats him like they do. “No, we’re just friends.”

“Right.” She pauses, turning the wheel left, “Thomas was looking for you today, he stopped by my house.”

You blink, “Did he say why?”

“Just that he needs to talk to you. Does he know?” She gives you a concerned look as she halts at a red light, “Does he know your friends with Gally?”

You shake your head, “I’m… I don’t think I’ll…” You sigh, “I don’t know if I should tell him or not.” You think back to Gally, to his car, the last thing you want to do is put more stress on him. “I get that it’s weird to keep it a secret, but I don’t want to cause any fights.”

“I guess you’re right…” She accelerates, “But you have been friends with Thomas longer.”

You glance at her, “I’ve been friends with all of you longer.” You sigh again, “But that doesn’t mean I… Gally is a good friend, Teresa.”

You wait for a reply, something slightly sarcastic, but she doesn’t speak at all. And you become nervous, Teresa isn’t one for not voicing her opinion on something. “You just don’t know him.”

“I know that he’s been harassing Tom. And I know that he’s some kind of…” She bites her lip, and doesn’t finish her sentence.

You sit up straighter, suddenly feeling the intensity of the situation, “Some kind of what?”

“Drug dealer.”

“He is not a drug dealer.” Suddenly some of the emotions surface, the build-up threatening to let loose.

“Look, all I know is that he’s messed up in something really bad, Y/N.”

“You don’t know…” You swallow, trying to push back the oncoming tears, “You don’t know what’s going on in his life right now.”

“He could be dangerous, and you’re over at his house?” Teresa parks the car in front of your house, and turns to you, “I saw his car. I saw it all trashed, what’s that all about?”

“You’re not listening to me, Teresa, he’s not dangerous!”

“So just any ordinary guy gets his car smashed up like that, huh? Just any ordinary guy’s brother gets shot up in the middle of the street?”

“You don’t know the full story!”

“Is this you trying… I don’t know, to fix him? Because he’s lonely and different?”

Your face heats up with anger, “What?”

“Do you feel sorry for him or something?” Her blue eyes reflecting your confusion, “Because I told you about his brother, you thought you could help him?”

“I… I’ve been friends with him longer than that.”

Teresa stops almost instantly, her babbling mouth closing shut, her eyebrows growing closer together in a confused frown, “What?”

“I’ve been talking to him longer than… before the football game, Teresa. Whatever your assumptions about me and him, I’m not trying to… I’m helping him, yes, but not because he’s lonely or different. Because he’s a friend.”

Teresa pauses to take in a breath, her worked up anger fizzling as she’s trying to make sense of what you said. “You should stop seeing him.”

“Are you kidding? Haven’t you been listening to anything I’ve been saying? We’re friends, I know Gally. He isn’t dangerous! He isn’t a drug dealer!” The words pouring out of your mouth are uncontrollable, emotional, and you both want to stop but don’t want to stop. “I don’t know why you’re saying these things, but you were the one to teach me not to make judgments on people without knowing who they are first!”

Teresa shakes her head, “Oh yeah? Well, I also believe in trusting your friends.”

With creased eyebrows, you frown, confused, “Teresa, I do trust you.”

“I know you do. But I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about me.”

“What?”

“Thomas is my friend and I trust him. He was the one to warn me about Gally. Y/N, he’s dangerous. Thomas said he’s involved in drugs and gangs…” For a split second, Teresa glances away, and in that second you see more emotions than just one, “For all we know, Gally could’ve been the one to murder his own brother.”

You stop, and look away from her, staring at the dashboard. Your breathing growing rapid and shallow, and something inside you… something inside you is angry. At Teresa and Thomas, because they don’t understand and they won’t try to. “I can’t believe you would say something like that!” You turn to her, fiery rage, “I can’t believe you. You’re wrong about Gally!” You pause before opening the car door, “You can tell Thomas that he can stop looking for me, because if I see him I won’t speak to him.” You grab up your things, and step out of the car. Before you close the door you grimace, hesitating, but the anger bubbling up inside you escapes, “Don’t call me.” You walk up to your house and unlock the front door, you hear Teresa speed off down the road. Your hand stays on the doorknob, and you feel the tears fall.


	11. Chapter 11

You don’t go to school come Monday, instead you lock yourself away in your bedroom. Your Mom tries to coax the real reason out of you, but you just tell her you’re not feeling very well, and she seems to understand.

You keep yourself busy by doing your homework, mostly. Lately you’ve had less time to catch up, so having a few days off helps you get back up to speed. Teresa doesn’t call, like you asked, but Newt tries to. You ignore him.

Even though you ignore your friends, you keep checking your phone throughout the day. Waiting. Waiting for Gally to text, to ask you to help him or hang out at his again, or even ask where you’ve been, but he’s as silent as Thomas and Teresa, and that leaves an uncomfortable feeling.

By Thursday morning, you’ve gained enough courage to face going to school. You still don’t explain your un-wellness to your mother, and even though she looks worried about you she is happy to drop you off.

Of course you find it hard to avoid Thomas and Teresa, however it works out almost perfectly. Occasionally you side step away down another hallway or hide in the girls’ bathrooms for a few minutes until you think it’s clear, and fortunately, they don’t come looking for you. They clearly don’t want to come looking for you.

But during lunch time, sitting at a different table, Newt spots you and with angry brown eyes he strides right up to where you sit; “Why aren’t you answering my calls?” He puts his tray down in front of you, and takes a seat across from you.

“I… uh—

“I know you’re… in some weird place with Teresa and Thomas right now, but that doesn’t mean you ignore me.”

“Newt, I’m sorry, I just wasn’t…” You sigh, pushing away your food. “I know you Newt, you’re going to try and get us to make up and be friends again or whatever, but it’s not… it’s different this time.” You look up at him, his soft, quiet face staring back intently, “It can’t be fixed… just like that.”

Newt looks down at his food, “Thomas and Teresa… they would never mean to hurt you, Y/N.”

You shake your head and immediately stand up from your seat, and out of the corner of your eye you see Teresa and Thomas staring at you both. You hate this feeling of being so vulnerable, of being on your own. “I can’t do this right now,” you exit the cafeteria and find some solitude outside by the parking lot. You hear the train rattle by as you breathe slowly, wishing away the rest of today.

You think about Gally again and wonder if he’s avoiding you, avoiding school, but why? Was he ashamed of himself? You think about the diner, the mysterious people outside near the alleyway the night Gally pushed you against the wall – the mysterious, old man who is relentlessly after Gally.

You glance over your shoulder, and then look back out to the train. The next one for your line comes in three minutes. You tighten your grip on your bag and cross over to the station; you have an idea.

The train stop is close by to the diner, about a ten-minute walk. You don’t dawdle outside of the diner, instead you walk inside immediately and choose a booth at the back, one against the massive, front windows that overlook the street outside. You order a coffee and a small cake to ease the bitterness, and you turn your attention to the world outside.

People walk past outside occasionally, it’s not a particularly popular street; especially at this time of day. When the waitress comes by with your coffee, she smiles gently, placing the mug down in front of you before pouring in the dark liquid from her coffee pot. “Nice day it is today.”

You glance out the window again to reaffirm her words, the sun is shining brighter than it has been, not a cloud in the sky. “Yeah. Yeah, it is.”

“Milk?”

You turn back to her and nod gratefully, she puts a small filled milk holder beside your coffee, and then sets the plate of cake down too. “Let me know if you need anything else, okay?”

“Thanks,” you stir in some milk and take a sip. You continue watching the world go by outside, casually ebbing away at the dessert, swallowing the coffee. You try to catch the details, picturing the older man in your head every few minutes to see if you can remember anything else. Thoughts soon turn back to Thomas and Teresa’s… betrayal of sorts. Almost. You feel betrayed. You know Teresa doesn’t know everything, and Thomas too, about Gally and what happened with his brother, but if Teresa believes in trusting her friends, why can’t she trust you?

An hour rolls by, you order another coffee. Fifteen minutes and you start to feel a little hungry again. You’re not sure how long you’re just going to sit here. Soon, school will be out and the diner will fill up almost immediately. You can’t just sit here all night.

But at that moment, when you try to figure out a plan of when to go, before you pull up your train times, somebody walks into the diner. Well, a few somebodies actually. You don’t know them, nor do you recognise them, but the car they just stepped out of… the driver none other than that mysterious old man.

Maybe you’re seeing things. Maybe you’re imagining it, but something inside you tells you that this  _is_ the guy, his face – unmistakable.

You watch as the group of younger guys find a booth, about three of them, and wait until they’ve finished ordering their food. You gulp down the last mouthful of your coffee and leave a few notes behind sitting on the glossy table.

You take in a breath, thinking back to the last time you tried to valiantly help somebody. You think back to the moment in the bathrooms at the football field,  _this isn’t going to be like last time_. With one last burst of courage and something close to stupidity, you slide into the booth with serious eyes, keeping your hands under the table to hide their quivering.

The guy opposite you, brown hair combed back over his head, the ends reaching the back of his blue shirt collar, and wearing a scuffed denim jacket leans in over the table closer to you with an intimidating smirk, “Well, who is this little girlie?”

You swallow and try to think of something to say, instantly scolding yourself for not planning a better attack.

The guy next to you, flannel shirt and an abundance of flashy piercings smiles, “I think she wants a taste,” the two other guys burst out laughing along with him.

“I’m… I’m looking for somebody.” You manage to get this out without too much of a shaky voice.

The long-haired guy looks down at you, a somewhat menacing look in his eye, “Oh yeah? Who?”

You blink and apologise in your mind to Gally, “I’m looking for Justin.”

The man sits back into his chair and looks over at his friends, a questioning, curious look, but the intimidation from before higher than ever, “What for?”

“He owes me some money.”

The man laughs almost outrageously, the other two join in, slapping their legs or even snorting, you cringe on the inside at their ease with laughing at a stolen life. The guy shakes his head, “Doesn’t he owe us all.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never you mind, girlie,” he leans in closer, revealing a silver dog tag dangling from his neck. A tattoo peeking out from under the cut of his shirt. “Justin won’t be paying back his debt.”

You feel your stomach threaten to push back up what you’ve eaten today, the nerves and the stress from this situation overwhelming your body, the danger you smell on these people, the talk of murder of someone your friend cared about deeply. “Where is he?”

The man next to you snickers, “He’s dead. Shot in the stomach and the chest, right on this street—

The other man opposite you immediately cuts him off, “Quit it, J.D.” You try your best to keep your surprise from surfacing… Justin was killed on  _this_ street?   
He glances back to you, “He’s dead, and if we could we woulda’ pried the money he owed  _us_  out of his cold, dead hands. But he had none. So stop looking for it, you won’t be getting it.”

You swallow again, your mouth unusually and almost painfully dry, “You’re telling me, a group like yours just quits on getting what’s theirs?”

J.D raises his eyebrows, “Yo, what did you just say to us?” He pounds the top of the table, “Nah, girlie, what’s your deal?” He looks over at the man who seems to have most of the power, “Dallas?”

Dallas, the man directly opposite of you smiles almost wickedly, “You’re smarter than you look,” he glances over at the quiet boy closest to the window, short-haired but thick build, “Ben, give me your dog tag.” Ben pulls the necklace over his head and passes it cautiously to Dallas who holds it out in front of you, his thumb wiping over the label etched into the metal, “You see that?”

Your eyes glide over the tag, “ _Grievers,”_ you frown out of confusion, “I don’t… I don’t understand.”

Dallas passes the dog tag back to Ben, “You’re lucky then, you haven’t crossed paths with the Grievers, or anyone from WICKED. Be thankful that you haven’t,” he takes a sip from his beer, “And I suggest you move on your merry way, before you regret ever sitting in this booth.”

These names roll around in your head, you have never heard of Grievers but you certainly  _have_ heard of WICKED. You swallow and pull out the crumpled piece of paper you took from Justin’s room, and slide it over to Dallas who stares at it curiously. “Somebody gave me this number when I asked for Justin.”

Dallas picks up the paper and turns it over, looking at the number scrawled on the back in what seems like a hurried rush, he nods, “Yeah, this is Rat Man’s number.”

You try to keep your breathing steady, and watch cautiously as he turns the paper over in his hands again to see the acronym of W.I.C.K.E.D. He passes it back to you, and you ask, “Rat Man?”

Dallas silences J.D’s snickers with a look, “Like I said, you should be glad that Justin was the only guy from WICKED that you messed around with. Rat Man is no guy you want to know, remember that.” He glances out the window, and pulls out some cash from his pocket, “Speaking of the devil.”

You glance to the car across the road, seeing the man you saw before, the man who threatened Gally. You look away, knowing he couldn’t possibly have seen you behind both Ben and J.D. You nod at Dallas before walking towards the bathrooms.

“Girlie?”

You look back at him, “Remember the name Grievers. Don’t come looking for us again.”

You nod slowly, and escape into a washed out cubicle as soon as possible. You lean against the wall of the cubicle, the dim lighting showing off the graffiti. You try to calm your breathing but it’s almost impossible. Those guys you spoke to were really a part of something dangerous, something involved with a murder. You can’t believe you spoke to them. What were you thinking?

There’s a knock on the cubicle door, and your heart drops.

“Are you alright?”

You recognise the voice, it belongs to the waitress that served you earlier.

“I saw you sitting with those men, did they do something to you?”

You croak out a no, but the shaking of sobs and the emotion in your voice doesn’t convince her one bit.

“Can you let me help you?”

You open the cubicle door slowly, “They… they didn’t do anything. I’m just a little shaken.”

She looks concerned, her red lips pushed into a frown, “They’re no good, those Grievers. Come in all the time, harassing young women.”

“Technically, I started it…”

She raises an eyebrow, “And why would you do that?”

“For a friend,” you whisper, and wipe the tears from your eyes. “I should get going.”

She doesn’t look too happy about it, but she moves out of the way for you to get passed. You walk through the diner, stopping right before the door to make sure their car is gone. You know the train won’t come by for another fifteen minutes, but you don’t want to stay in the diner any longer.

As you set foot outside, you pull up your phone and notice 3 missed calls from Gally, and some texts. You turned it on silent before, as it was a distraction, and you didn’t want those guys to get nervous around you.

You’re about to hit the dial button when a car screeches right up next to you, you freeze and almost go into panic mode when you realise its only Gally, just driving a different car.

“Get in.”

“Gally, what the—

“Get in, Y/N, now.”


	12. Chapter 12

You hop into shotgun and stare at his cold features, his nervous glances in the review mirrors. You don’t know where you’re going, maybe back to Gally’s place, but soon he pulls over on the side of the road, turning to you after he puts the car in park.

His face flares with hot anger, “What the hell did you think you were doing?”

You stay silent, knowing Gally must have been doing the same thing as you, looking out for those guys involved with his brother. Maybe it wasn’t such a great plan after all.

He looks away before shaking his head, his voice borderline threatening, “I saw you in the diner, talking to those guys.“ His eyes find yours again, a deep worry buried within. "Do you know who they are?”

You swallow, already regretting what you did, “Grievers.”

He blinks, and remains quiet for a few seconds… “What did you say?”

“Grievers.”

Something flashes across those green eyes, and you’re suddenly more worried about the situation than you were, “How do you know that?”

You respond quietly, “It’s on their dog tags, they showed it to me.”

Gally reaches into his shirt, and pulls out a silver dog tag, lifting it over his head. You watch, and a sudden fear sets in. What would Gally be doing with the same necklace? Same as their dog tag? You instinctively reach for the door handle as Teresa’s words start pouring into your head, Thomas’ voice in the back of your mind, _He’s dangerous… For all we know, he could have murdered his own brother!_

“It was Justin’s…” He holds it out to you, and whatever anxiety you had quickly fades away.

Of course.You inspect the dog tag, the same etching of the word  _Griever_ , the same chain, everything about it was exactly the same as Ben’s. “It’s the same as theirs.”

“You found them.”

You look up at Gally, “What?”

“You found the guys I was looking for, the guys who’ve been tormenting me.”

You stare at the dog tag again, twisting it around your fingers, feeling the cool metal on your skin. An image of the necklace lying around Justin’s bloody neck, bulging dead eyes flashes through your mind, and you suddenly drop it to the floor.

Gally’s voice breaks your trance of horror, “It’s okay, it wasn’t on Justin when he died.”

You turn to Gally, blinking, somehow he knew exactly what you were thinking, “I’m…” you bend over to pick it up, “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s alright.” He glances at the metal in your hands, “I see him too, you know, what he was like when he was…”

“I…” You pass it back to him, “I didn’t know he died on the street outside the diner, if I’d known I never would’ve hung out there, or brought you there—

He dismisses what you say with his hand, “It’s alright, I know you didn’t know.”

“So… he owed money to his own group?”

“Yeah, they all owe money to each other but… Well, Justin just didn’t ever begin to pay it back. It started with small debts with each of the guys in his group, but I think he started borrowing money from Rat Man too.”

“Right,” you breathe in deeply, “Rat Man.”

He looks over at you, a deep panic in his green eyes, “You know his name?”

“I… It was tossed around when I talked to the other Grievers.” You take in a breath, “I also… When I was at your house, I found this note,” you pass the note you showed to Dallas to Gally, “I found it in your brother’s room.”

Gally frowns as he stares at the word.

You swallow nervously, “On the back it has a number, which belongs to Rat Man.”

Gally’s eyes widen as he turns the piece of paper over, “You called Rat Man!?”

You shake your head, “No, no I didn’t. I asked those guys in the diner about it and they told me who’s it is.” You let him read the digits silently for a few seconds, “I’m sorry I was in your brother’s room. I got curious.”

Gally nods but doesn’t reply, he stuffs the paper away in his pockets. Then he unbuckles his seatbelt, and leans closer into the wheel, rubbing his forehead with one hand. He looks back to you, “Y/N, I need you to promise me something.”

You swallow nervously, the air around you growing thinner, “Promise what?”

“Don’t, and I mean don’t go after this. Don’t go after Rat Man, he’s not some guy you can just start talking to. That you can get information out of, trust me.”

“Gally—

“No, Y/N, whatever you’ve done I’ll forgive. But I need you to stop going after this.”

You sigh, knowing that you shouldn’t have done this behind Gally’s back. But with school and friends, you needed to do something. You needed to feel useful; you didn’t want to feel sorry for yourself anymore, just over an argument you had. There are issues so much bigger than that.

You shake your head, “I can only partly promise that.”

“Y/N—“I promise not to go after this, on my own, but I’m helping you Gally.

“You’re not going to do this alone either.”

“You don’t know the shit he’s—

“I understand what he’s capable of. And fine, I won’t go do more things like I did today, but from now on you’re not taking all of this shit on board by yourself. I know you’re strong, and resilient, god, but I’m not letting you just one day disappear because of these guys. Because of what they’ve done, and what they’re doing.”

Gally doesn’t look at you. “No. I won’t forgive myself if you get hurt because of this. Because of me.”

“Don’t pull that crap on me, I’m not just some idiot. I know what I’m doing, I know when there’s danger. I can handle myself.”

“You just walked up to the Grievers and sat down with them! Talked to them! You  _are_  an idiot!”

“I didn’t get hurt though, did I!?”

He goes to say something but stops, and frustratingly sits back in his car seat.

“Fine. If we’re doing this, you don’t do anything more without my knowing and agreeing of it, alright?”

“Alright.”

He sits in his own thoughts for a while, “Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. What you did was stupid and dangerous and I’m still mad about it… but thanks. You’re trying to help and I appreciate that.”

You smile at him. He smiles briefly, but goes back to staring out the front of the car. You watch him as he thinks, probably trying to decide what to do next. All of this almost seems unreal to you, when you first met Gally you never would have guessed this is how things would end up, but you’re not going to just leave him on his own. You’re in this now, together.

He checks the time on his mobile quickly, and then glances back up to you with a look in his eye as if he’s finally decided on something, “All of this won’t stop until their money is paid back. Justin owed them five grand total.” He sighs, shaking his head, “Whatever he used all that money for, I don’t wanna think about.”

“You want to pay them off?”

“That was the plan, pay back Justin’s debt so they’d leave me alone, you know, before they start reaching out to anybody else I’m connected to.”

“You can’t go to the police?”

He shakes his head, “No… it’d be a death wish. They know who I am, they know where I live, and soon they’ll probably know that you’re one of my friends. They’d try to hurt me.” He buckles his seatbelt again, “Besides, the police aren’t going to do anything about a closed case.”

“So you’re just going to try and repay his debt? But how?”

He shrugs, “I have two grand saved.”

“But… to get three grand will take a while, what if they do something to you, Gally?”

He doesn’t meet your eyes, “It’s either get the money or pay them back by working for them.”

Your stomach drops and you feel slightly nauseated, “You can’t work for them.”

“It’s… I don’t want to, believe me, but it’s not completely off the table.”

“Yes it is, Gally.”

He shakes his head, his hand resting on the side of your seat as he faces you, “Like you said, three grand takes a while to find!”

You let your words fall out again, like usual, knowing that they’re harsh but truthful, “There is no way you’re working for them! They killed Justin!” You stop yourself before saying anything more, staring into his eyes, you can see the emotion filled within. Your voice becomes calmer and more appropriate, “Do you really think they’ll just let you go after his debt is paid off?”

“I…”

“You’ll be stuck working for them forever.”

Silence engulfs the car, neither of you having anything left to say on the matter. You hope Gally wakes up and realises that working as one of their dealers would be the worst decision he could make. But then again, where are you going to find the remaining three grand?

“There was only three in the diner with you, right?”

You’re pulled out of your worrying cycle of thinking and nod, “Yeah, only three. Dallas, Ben and J.D.”

“There’s a fourth one.”

“How do you know?”

“That night I pulled you in the alleyway, I noticed somebody new. I was trying to listen in and see if they’d say names or something, but I didn’t hear anything or see anything.”

You nod slowly, “Yeah… I remember, two people were talking by the diner entry.”

“Those other guys, the three you talked to, they’re no good.” Gally says, starting the car up and pulling it into drive, “They’ve been around too long, none of ‘em will say anything. But the new guy…” Something flashes in those green eyes of his, “My bets are on him.”

“You think he might tell you about what happened… to Justin?”

Gally turns a corner, “I’m sure of it. He’s new, he doesn’t have much attachment to them yet, besides I can be intimidating if I need to be.”

“But how are you going to find him?”

He shifts uncomfortably, “Well… you found those guys all on your own, shouldn’t be too hard.”

You watch as the sun sinks lower behind the trees as you drive, “Don’t you think it might be dangerous, trying to get information from him?”

“I’m willing to take the risk.”

“I’m not.”

Gally sighs, “I know… it seems hypocritical of me… but Y/N, I’ve been chasing after this for a year now. I’m going to do anything to find the person who murdered Justin.”

You sink down in your chair, knowing that you can’t say anything to change his mind. Partly because he’s so stubborn, but also because he has the right to find out what happened to his brother, and if the police won’t help what else is there to do?

“Alright, fine. We’ll find this guy and get him to talk.”

Gally raises an eyebrow, “Maybe you should just stay in the car for this one. Or better yet, I’ll drop you home.”

“Together, remember?”

Gally sighs and turns the wheel, “Right, together. But just let me do the talking.”

“Wait… we’re doing this right now?”

There’s silence; you’ve grown used to the silence that comes and goes between you both. “No… not tonight… I have to…” He drives passed the diner and then slows down in front of your house, “We’ll catch up about it tomorrow.”

“Oh… yeah, alright.” You notice something weird about the look he gives you, but you decide just to ignore it.

* * *

You leave school early again on Friday, Gally hadn’t showed up and there was only so much you could handle from Teresa today, you were just thankful Thomas wasn’t around to push it even further. 

You decide to walk home, and just wait for a call from Gally. You hope he didn’t go alone, even if the fourth person might not seem as dangerous as the other three… He said you would do this together from now on.

You pass the diner, and instead go right, towards your street. You stop before crossing the street, before crossing the road where Justin died. You never knew him but his death has impacted you more than you could ever understand. You stare at the road, wondering if Justin died alone. The thought sends chills down your spine, and instead of dwelling on it you force your feet forward.

You near your street, but you suddenly get the feeling that you’re not alone. You quicken your pace, maybe you’re just still freaked out from yesterday or something, but the feeling doesn’t go away. You’re almost at your street corner when somebody calls out to you. You stop, not recognising the voice. Their footsteps come closer to you, but all you can do is stay frozen in place.

The boy steps in front of you, a look of worry in his eyes. You recognise him to be one of the Grievers, and your heart drops.  

"I… I never got your name.” He says quietly, glancing behind you and then to the ground, “I didn’t mean to freak you out.”

You swallow firmly, suddenly more scared than ever, “What do you want?”

Ben bites the bottom of his lip, and finally is able to find your eyes. “It’s about Justin.”

You try to gather yourself, knowing if you showed any fear it might make the situation worse, you’re not sure yet of Ben’s intentions but maybe you’re over-dramatising, “What about Justin?”

Ben looks hesitant but he continues to speak, “The five grand he owed… He had it. He had it ready to pay everyone off.”

This new information shakes you, shakes you to the core. “I don’t get it, if… if Justin was ready to pay you off then why kill him?“

Ben swallows, looking away, "It wasn’t us." 

You take a step back, your eyes wandering, your head shaking from side-to-side, "But I thought…”

“He texted us, he said he’d meet us at the diner for the exchange. When we got here, he was already dead out on the road. If he had the money or not, it was gone.”

You look at him, searching his eyes, “Why are you telling me this?”

Ben sighs, “I think… I think you didn’t owe Justin any money at all. I think you want to know what happened to him.”

You reach for your mobile and dial Gally, keeping it in your pocket, “You’re wrong I–

"He only owed us.”

You don’t know if Gally can hear you, you don’t know if he would be able to find you, but you keep the phone on, “How many of you are there? How many Grievers?”

“There was five with Justin, now four.”

“The fourth member…” You know you’re being risky, and you know you shouldn’t ask, “How come he wasn’t with you in the diner?”

“He likes to be secretive.”

Ben moves closer to you but you immediately step away, “I should get going, my parents would know I’m missing.” You only hope that’s enough of a clue for Gally to at least know the area you are in, if he even picked up your call. 

Ben steps in front of you, closes in, and grabs a hold of your wrist. You try to push away but he harshly whispers in your ear, “Don’t move.” You’re not sure if he has a weapon or not, but his voice alone is enough to make you stop squirming out of his grip.

“I know you’re friends with Gally.”

Your breathing shakes, a tremble goes through you like no other. You start to wonder if he’s going to let you go.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” He takes a breath, and you try not to wince as his grip grows tighter, “The fourth member had a bigger debt. He was considered new, he splurged all of his money and started borrowing off others, including Justin. Justin had five grand in his pocket the night he died, my bets are on our fourth member.” He lets go, gives you one last look, and pushes passed you, heading off towards the diner.

You feel so much confusion and doubt, distrust, but curiosity always gets the better of you, “Why are you telling me all of this?”

He stops, hesitant, he looks over his shoulder, “Justin was a good guy. Something should’ve been done about it, but no one cared. You care, and Gally does too. Justin needs you both, he needs you to find his killer.”

“But I… If you’re so sure it’s one of the Grievers, why don’t you do something about it?”

Ben shakes his head, “I can’t, don’t you understand? That’s why I followed you. It has to be you, I can’t do anything.” He glances in front of him, and then back to you, “Look, I have to go.” He pulls his hood up, “Find him. He’s closer than you think.”

“But how? Who is he!?” Your words are left in the air with no response, and you watch as Ben walks down the road, hands in pockets.  You feel panic set in, this fourth member… Ben’s last words to you are left swimming in your brain.  _He’s closer than you think._ Suddenly you remember Gally, you pull out your mobile from your pocket and lift it to your ear. 

“Well…” The voice on the other end crackles through your mobile, you frown out of confusion, “Nice to know I’m not trusted.”

You swallow as the pieces all form in your mind,  _He’s closer than you think._  You try to control your breathing, but you can’t, your chest heaves with panic– sense of danger. “Thomas?” He doesn’t reply at first. “Thomas?”

He sighs a long sigh, “Y/N. Didn’t I tell you to stay away from Gally?”

His threatening voice shocks you, and sudden tears form in your eyes, “Where is he, Thomas? Where’s Gally?”

There’s more crackling of static on the other side before you finally get a reply, a cool, and calm collected Thomas, “Here with me, but, barely conscious.”

“Why…”

“I told you to stay away from him, but you didn’t listen.” Thomas voice cracks with emotion, “You helped him find me. Now you’ve helped him by uncovering the truth!” There’s a pause as he tries to settle himself, “Y/N, nobody can know, don’t you understand? Nobody can know I killed Justin."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER WARNING:   
> This chapter will include swearing, violence and character death-- please make sure that you take care of yourself first and don't read if any of these things may be harmful to you.

You drop to your knees. You feel you hand cover your mouth and the tears fall, nausea overwhelms your body instantly. After all this time... Thomas? You hear him calling out your name but you can't bring yourself to put the phone back to your ear. 

"Y/N."

You swallow, and lift it back up, knowing you have to somehow find out where he is, where Gally is, before it's too late. Thomas is emotional and scared, he might do anything to keep the truth hidden for good. "Thomas, please, I won't say anything to anyone. Just please don't hurt Gally, okay?"

"I can't do that."

"Thomas, please," you beg, "Please, we can figure this out." You hear something in the background, something like a struggle. Something falls over and Thomas grunts out of frustration. Voices are heard, punches are thrown, but in between the mess you can hear gushing water... you can hear someone calling out to you. It's Gally.

"The album, Y/N!" -- "Where we listened to the album!" 

You hang up the phone, a new, profound energy in you, you know where they are.

* * *

 

It didn't take you long to reach the diner. Once you opened the doors you bent over, catching your breath back, and when you looked up you saw them. The Grievers. The three of them... You push back your hair and gather all your strength, this is the only way.

You slide into the booth, next to Ben, who jumps with surprise as he sees you.

You eye Dallas who is again across from you. He pushes back loose strands of his greased hair and stares at you hotly, his cheek bones protruding as he bites the inside of his cheek out of irritation. He leans in closer to you, his voice quiet but firm, "You need to leave."

You shake your head, "I'm not going anywhere."

"Get up,  _now,_  girlie, before I have to--

You interject immediately, "I know what happened to your five grand." You turn to look at all of them, including Ben, who stares at you intensely. The conversation you both had earlier flashes in his eyes, and something else... fear. You turn back to Dallas, "I know who has it."

He sits back in the booth, a look of distrust crosses his face, "I don't believe you."

"If you come with me, I can show you."

J.D bursts out laughing, "Alright girlie,  _sure_ ," he continues to laugh until Dallas suddenly shuts him up with one look. 

Dallas breathes, "Why tell us?"

You take a breath, "I need your help."

"Course she does," J.D mutters.

Dallas snaps his head to J.D, "Will you just  _shut up_ , J.D.?" Silence sits between them both until he turns back to you, "What do you need help with?" He seems to be interested but not at all trusting, yet.

"One of your Grievers... They have my friend." You sit up straighter, preparing for their response, as if readying for impact, "He has my friend, Gally."

They look between each other, silent glances, silent communication. Dallas slowly turns back to you, "You can't guarantee us our money, girlie, so I think you should just leave."

You think for a moment, your brain scrambling for something to do, something you can say that can help them get on your side. That can help them trust you. But nothing can help you. With Gally gone and no shred of evidence, you're stuck. And Gally will be left in the unstable hands of Thomas.

You get up from the booth quietly, feeling the Grievers' stares on your back as you move towards the exit. The waitress from yesterday casting worried glances at you as you proceed to leave... Your hands fall in your jacket pocket and you brush by something cool -- your mobile. Suddenly, an idea sparks. "I can prove it." You say to yourself quietly, and then you turn around and rush back to their table, "I can prove it! I  _can_  guarantee." You sit back down and place your phone onto the table, then you snatch up Ben's mobile, "Put voice record on when I say to."

Ben looks at the other two, Dallas just nods, and so Ben holds the phone ready in his hands. 

You take your own phone, try to breathe calmly, and then open your call log. You look up at the Grievers, "I need you to be quiet, he can't know you're listening in."

You press dial, a few seconds pass before he finally picks up, "Y/N? Didn't think you'd call back so soon."

You swallow and speak calmly into the phone, "I need to hear him Thomas, I need to hear if he's okay."

Thomas sighs heavily, "Alright, alright," static and unknown noise, as well as gushing water, echoes out from the loud speaker of your phone. "Here--

Gally's voice suddenly breaks out through Thomas' phone, "Y/N?" He sounds weak and scared.

You hold back tears as best as you can, "Gally..."

"Y/N, I'm... I'm alright, I'm fine. You need to--

Suddenly there's a sickening  _thwack_  and Gally is cut off from Thomas' phone. There's a shift in placement of the mobile, and finally Thomas is back on the line, "See? He's fine."

You nod at Ben, and he presses the record button. Dallas and J.D stare down at the phone intensely. You take in another long breath.

"Thomas... Why?"

"I already told you, Gally knows... you know... No one was supposed to find out. No one."

You suddenly feel a rush of anger burst through, "Why did you do it? Why did you kill him, Tom?"

There's silence, a shaky, emotional breath, "He said to. He told me to."

Your heart beats loud in your chest, you glance up at Ben who seems just as confused as you are, "What do you mean, Thomas? Who told you?"

"Who else?" He laughs dryly, "Rat Man. Janson."

You look up at Dallas, his face hard and unreadable. You turn over the name  _Janson_  in your mind, knowing Rat Man's real name is strange. Almost unreal.

"Why did he tell you to kill Justin? If Justin had the five grand, why would Rat Man-- why would Janson need him dead?" Thomas pauses, breathing hard, seconds go by without an answer and you grow worried. You need this. You need to hear him say it, you need the Grievers to believe you. "Thomas?"

He speaks somewhat slowly, as if he's been defeated, "He wanted the money for himself. He said if I killed Justin and stole the money, no one would know. My debt would be erased. He would have what he wanted."

You keep the surprise of his words to yourself, you can't stuff it up now, treading carefully you say, "And what if you didn't kill him?"

"I... I think he might've killed me, Y/N. I think he might've killed me."

You signal for Ben to stop the recording, which he does, and then you continue talking over the phone, "Thomas, it's not your fault. Janson is in the wrong here, he's threatened you and forced you into this. Please, just let Gally go."

"I-- 

Suddenly there's a new voice. An old voice, raspy and angry. "Where is he?"

Thomas speaks quietly into the phone, "I have to go, I'm sorry, I have to go--

Your phone beeps twice, telling you that Thomas has hung up. You stare at your screen, you can only imagine what they'll do to Gally.

Dallas speaks up, "Rat Man--" He blinks, shaking his head, "Janson... Janson did this. Janson killed Justin and stole our money for himself."

Ben shakes his head, "Janson made Thomas kill Justin for our money, and then ordered us to torment Gally? What for, to get another five grand?"

"To make sure we didn't suspect him." Dallas eyes your phone, "Bastard." He suddenly stands up from the booth, J.D follows him out. You get up too, and Ben follows behind you. You hear a beeping noise on your phone, Ben sent you the recording. It's enough, you're not sure what you'll do with it, but it's enough. A confession.

You're outside of the diner, and heading towards a dark coloured car. Dallas slides into the front, and Ben slides into the back. You eye the vehicle, hesitant, but you know you have to go with them. You have to find Gally. 

You hop in, and Dallas starts the car up before he turns back to you, "Where are they?"

"A river. A river off the highway, I'll show you the way."

* * *

 

You sit in silence as you four travel back to the river where you sat on a picnic table with Gally, listening to music, when things were carefree. When things were simple. When Gally was safe.

You wonder why he chose that place to bring Thomas to.. You wonder why Gally went without you... You wonder why he knew the fourth member all along but never said anything to you.  _He's dangerous_. Those words, the same ones as what Thomas said about Gally. Gally had said them to you the day his car was trashed. He knew Thomas was involved with the Grievers this whole time, but he couldn't tell you. Why? The tension between them both, it wasn't just petty lacrosse VS football nonsense, it was about Gally's knowledge of Thomas being a drug dealer. Being connected to Justin and the Grievers. To Rat Man, now known as Janson.

The night he dropped you home after you two talked about the Grievers, about doing this together, he left you knowing what he had to do. Crack Thomas. Break him into telling him who killed Justin. He chose somewhere quiet, somewhere he could intimidate Thomas without anyone seeing. But Thomas was prepared. You can't help but only imagine what he's done to Gally since your last call. What Janson has ordered of him. 

Finally, the car slows down to a stop. You spot Gally's car, Tom's and Janson's parked side-by-side. At least they haven't left yet. 

Dallas turns in his seat, "Alright, rule number one, only Grievers are allowed to leave this car."

You unbuckle your seatbelt, "No way--

He speaks again, almost a growl, "Stay here."

You search his eyes but find nothing else to say, so you stay put. You watch as they get out of the car, Ben leaving you with an apologetic look, and you watch as they head towards the river quietly, dark night sky settling over the day. You hear nothing but silence, and it only fills you with worry. What if it's too late? You think about Gally and your heart stammers, you don't know how you would feel if... if Gally was gone. If he was gone for good. You could never forgive yourself. Never forgive Tom. Never--

Your thoughts are suddenly broken by loud yelling. You listen to what they're saying but it's too far away. You keep yourself together, you stay in the car, and hope whoever is yelling isn't yelling for help.

Suddenly there are gunshots, they echo through the night violently. Your eyes widen and you feel the need to duck and hide in the car, but something else tugs you out of the car instead. You stumble out, almost falling to your knees, and then you're running through the night, through the cold, pushing passed leaves and trees. "Gally!" You scream, over and over. You trip over fallen logs, vines, but you only get back up again. The noise of fighting and shouting becomes louder as you close in on the patch where they keep Gally. It's hard to see, the sun has pretty much sunken behind the horizon by now. 

You stay hidden behind a bush as the noise continues. What can you do? You have nothing to defend yourself with, and even if you did, how in the hell would you know how to use it? You don't even know why you left the car, but if you can do something -- anything, it has to be now. You peer around the leaves, the firing is at the opposite side. Janson and Thomas against the Grievers. Closer to the bush you hide behind is the picnic table, the one you sat on with Gally. The river gushes by. Gally has to be around here somewhere--

Your eyes land on a figure crouched underneath the table. Trembling. You know who it is.

The noise of gunfire and shouting dies down in almost an instant as you fly out from behind the bush, sliding in under the table, you meet eyes with Gally. You clasp his face into your hands, his arms behind his back cuffed with zip-ties. His face is dirty and bloodied, bruised and hurt. His green eyes faded. But when he looks at you he suddenly becomes alive, "Y/N..."

All the emotions that have built up inside you, all the feelings for this boy that have grown since you met, the worry you felt that he was already gone, everything you've ever felt all comes gushing out as you press your lips against his. You feel him surprised under the kiss, but soon welcomes it by kissing you back. Your arms fall around his neck. Your quick kisses and impatient touches are rushed but they’re everything to you. He pulls away, but still close to you, "Y/N, you found me... you..." he kisses you again, eager to get his hands free so he can hold you, too, "I'm so sorry."

You kiss him back, "I thought..."

Suddenly a couple of hands grab onto your arms, pulling you out from underneath the table. You push whoever it is off of you as Gally comes tumbling out, too. He comes up beside you, his hands still behind his back but his feet ready to kick if he needs to. He stops as he recognises the face. Dallas. He turns to you, "The Grievers?"

You nod, "I didn't know who else to go to."

Dallas reaches behind Gally's back and cuts the zip-ties off, freeing Gally's hands. Gally shakes them out, as they've probably been bound together like that for most of the day. 

Gally hesitates a moment, but soon sticks his hand out to Dallas who shakes it, "Thanks."

Dallas looks slightly uncomfortable, but nods anyway, "I owe you. Justin... he didn't deserve what he got. He was a good guy. I'm sorry for harassing you about the money--

"It's alright... it's...over now, anyway--"

"Dallas!" 

You all turn towards J.D, across from you, sitting on the grass, holding a limp figure in his arms. Dallas pushes passed you, stumbling to the ground as he reaches them both. Gally follows, but you don't move a muscle. You already know who it is. Your stomach drops, and you bite your cheek to stop the tears from coming.  _Ben_.

" _Fuck!_ " Dallas cries, realising the gunshot wound to the side of Ben's stomach has bled out immensely... "Damned Janson can burn in hell."

You walk cautiously over to the boys, suddenly wondering where Thomas is. You spot the brown headed boy lying off to the side, no visible bleeding, he groans but doesn't open his eyes. You close in on the group surrounding Ben, but suddenly, a body that lies further away from Thomas moves. You squint to see and realise it's Janson, his blood spilling through his fingers as he clutches his stomach. He lifts the gun and it happens all too quickly. A loud crack through the cool air of night, as you tell Gally to watch out. But he falls down in front of you. Two more gunfires echo before Janson stops moving.

You hear your own voice call out loudly, "Gally!"


	14. Chapter 14

The car ride to the hospital was a blur. J.D and Dallas took Gally into their car, and you followed, shaken by disbelief. Gally’s head lay in your lap, all the way you couldn’t tear your eyes away from him. You pressed a strip of your shirt into his bleeding wound, hoping Dallas could drive fast enough to the hospital before he bled out right there in the back seat. 

Now you sit in the waiting room after they rushed him into surgery. The police were here taking statements from J.D and Dallas, about Ben, and Janson, about everything that just happened down by the river. They came by before trying to talk to you, but you were unresponsive. You barely even remember it. It seems now though that the blur since the bullet hit Gally is seeping away steadily. You start to become aware of the people around you, the worried glances and quiet whispers. Your face must be covered in dirt, with tear marks. Your clothes ragged, especially with half of your shirt torn off. With Gally’s blood all over you.

But you continue to sit in, away from the chairs, on the hospital floor, leaning against a wall. Gally’s Dad didn’t pick up the phone when the nurse tried to call. There was no one else but you here for him. You replay the events again and again in your head, Janson grabbing the gun, the sound of it going off, Gally dropping to the ground. And you did absolutely nothing.

They took Thomas too. You remember now, Thomas sat on the other end of the car, Gally’s legs thrown over his lap. He was shaking, muttering something, but you can’t remember what. The nurses wheeled him off somewhere, to another room.

“Y/N!”

You look over to whoever calls your name, and you’re surprised to see Teresa, Newt, Minho and Brenda altogether, here at the hospital. Newt immediately engulfs you with a hug before sitting back to find your eyes. You can’t look at him, you can’t look at anyone. You’re still in so much shock. “Y/N, what happened?”

“Thomas, he…” You shake your head, “Gally was shot…”

Teresa gasps, glancing to Newt, Newt’s brown eyes confused, he tries to ask what happened in more detail but you put your head on your knees, curling up into yourself against the hospital wall suddenly wishing that this was all just a dream. Someone covers you with a jacket. Voices that were there soon disappear. You fall into a quiet sleep.

You wake up a couple hours later, and instead of on the hospital floor, you were carried into Gally’s room, lying on the chairs inside. You gasp when you see him wired into machinery, lying unconscious in his bed. You pull up one of the chairs closer to him, and immediately find comfort in holding his hand. You watch his heartbeat on the monitor, and then look at his peaceful face; the steady breathing.

“He’s going to alright, they said.” Teresa’s voice breaks the comfortable silence, and you turn to look at her. “The doctor said you guys got him here in time.”

You don’t say anything, instead you just look at Gally, as if willing him to wake up soon.

“I’m… Y/N, I’m sorry. I was wrong about Gally.”

You don’t want to feel upset again, you’re sick of feeling upset. The exhaustion you feel from the stress of today overwhelms your mind and body.

“Please Y/N, just say something… Tell me you hate me, I don’t care, just say something…”

You finally look at her, at her blue icy eyes, “I don’t hate you Teresa.”

“I hurt you, and I hurt Gally, too. I didn’t give him a chance. I… Thomas he… he was the drug dealer, I can’t–

"It’s alright.”

“It’s not alright.” Teresa wipes at her tears, and comes closer to you, “I could have helped you or something… This wouldn’t have happened if I trusted you.”

You offer up a chair, she pulls it next to yours and sits in it. You put an arm around her shoulder, leaning your head close to her, “You didn’t know. You couldn’t have known.”

“I wish I did.”

You breathe, closing your eyes, “So do I.”

* * *

When you wake up again, feeling better refreshed even if your sleep was spent half-lying on Gally’s bed while sitting in a chair, you realise Teresa is gone. Your conversation with her feels like a dream, almost. You know she’s sorry, and you know she was only trying to protect you, she just put her trust in the wrong person. Your friendship with her won’t be the same but it doesn’t mean you can’t try.

You see a coffee in a take-away cup sitting on the small table beside Gally’s bed with a sticky note stuck right on the middle. You lift the cup, still hot, and rip the sticky note off.

> _Had to leave but will be back soon. This is for you. Lots of love, Newt._  

You smile at his endearing note and take a sip of the coffee immediately, caffeine is exactly what you need right now. You glance at the time, 4pm in the afternoon. It’s been a day since Gally was shot. You watch him sleep peacefully while you sip at your coffee, the nurses must have let you stay because you’re the only one around for him right now.

You haven’t had a whole lot of time to process all of this. Seeing Gally wrapped in wires and unconscious… reminds you that you just had serious dealings with a drug gang. You have no idea how far this group spreads, and now… it’s all been undone in one night. 

The hospital room’s door swings open slightly, and you’re only mildly surprised to see the visitor. Dallas. His usual greased hair and denim jacket. But definitely more tired than you’ve seen.

“Hi, Y/N.” He walks in cautiously, closing the door carefully behind him, “How’s he doing?”

“Fine. Recovering.” You tear your eyes away from Gally to look at Dallas again, “Sleeping.”

He nods, and stares at Gally for a moment before pulling up a chair beside you. “I want you to know, Gally doesn’t… he doesn’t have to worry about anything to do with us anymore. You know that, right?”

You smile and nod, “Yes… Thank you, Dallas. For helping me.”

He doesn’t reply, but you know he’s thankful to have found out what he did. “About Janson… he died.” He turns away, his head in his hand, “And Ben died too, I don’t know if you…”

“I remember.” You swallow the emotions, “I’m so sorry, Dallas.”

“Don’t be. This wasn’t your fault, or Gally’s, it was all Janson.” He looks at you, his dog tag reflecting the hospital lights, “We found Janson’s money, there’s a lot more there than just five grand.”

“You found it?”

Dallas smiles, “A whole stash. That bastard won’t be using it now.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“Whatever I like,” he smiles before lifting himself from the chair. He heads towards the door, “Oh, and Thomas, he’s… well, he won’t be involved with the Grievers anymore.”

“What are they going to do about him?”

“They took Ben’s phone when they found his body, they heard the recording.” He opens the door and lingers for just a few more seconds, “That’s all I know. I’m sure… I’m sure your friends will know more. I’ve got to go.”

You wave him goodbye, speaking more than you have to obviously taking too much effort. 

He hesitates at the doorway, his hands resting on the frame, and instead looks at you one last time, “I think it’d be best if we didn’t speak again.”

You nod slowly, knowing this is probably the right thing. You’re not friends, you never will be. He’s a drug dealer… and now, well, who knows what he’ll be now that Janson is dead. But you’ll be forever thankful for his help. “Goodbye, Dallas.”

He salutes you with two fingers before exiting your sight. You suddenly think of Ben, you know you’ll hold him close to your heart for what he did for you and Gally.

“Dear God…” a groan comes from the hospital bed as Gally shifts around, “My stomach is killing me.”

You gasp excitedly and immediately reach for Gally’s hand, “You’re awake!”

“Alright, alright! Don’t get too excited, I might start to think you like me or something.”

You push back from Gally and frown at him, who seems to be very amused by your reaction. “You’re so ungrateful.”

He looks to your chair beside his bed, and then back up to the probable ghastly sight of you, “You been here all night?” He eyes your clothing, ragged and dirtied.

You ignore his questioning stare, “Yes.”

He tries to hide his blush but fails incredibly, “Jeez–

But you interrupt his probable snide remark with a kiss, knowing that it’s the only way to shut him up without ending up in a full blown argument. He smiles into the kiss and mumbles something along the lines of, "Maybe I should get hospitalized all the time if this is what I’m gonna wake up to.”

You giggle and kiss him again before settling back into the chair beside his bed, “I should probably go get a doctor.”

Gally pouts, “But I haven’t seen you in like, years.”

“Gally.” You shake your head, “You did just get shot, you know!”

He settles back into the bed, “Alright, alright, fine.”

You get up from the chair and walk out of Gally’s room, eyes scanning the hallway for a doctor, or nurse, somebody that could help. You spot a help desk or administration office of sorts, so you walk on over and catch the nurse’s eyes, “Hi, my friend just woke up from surgery, I was wondering–

She smiles, "I’ll send a doctor over immediately, what’s the room number?”

“203.”

“Shouldn’t be too long,” She smiles again and then picks up the phone, so you leave the office and decide you’ll just wait with Gally until a doctor arrives. You turn towards Gally’s hallway and spot somebody hovering outside his door, at first you think Newt has come back, but the figure holds himself so nervously… he turns away from the door and walks up the hallway towards you instead.

You stand there, wanting to move, to hide, so he doesn’t see you, but you can’t. Your feet stick to the hospital floor, and by the time you think you can move them, it’s too late. Thomas spots you, his blue eyes staring into yours. Everything about this boy has changed, now. You don’t look at him the same. The Thomas you once knew… was that ever the real Thomas?

He pulls his hood closer to his face out of nerves, “Y/N…”

You swallow, your jaw tense. You don’t say anything, mainly because you have no idea what to say to him, after everything…

He takes another step closer, “Y/N, I’m sorry. I really am–

"Why are you here?”

He looks taken aback at first, it’s probably the edge to your voice or the way you cut him off. “To see if Gally was alright.”

“Can’t say the same for Ben.”

He winces at your coldness to him, “I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop it. I’m sorry.”

“I don’t want your apology, Thomas.” You feel an emotional wave hit you but you just bite your lip and hide it from him, “I’m not the one who needs it.” You push passed him and don’t turn back to look at him until you reach Gally’s room. 

Thomas walks back towards the admin where two police officers handcuff him and push him into the elevator.

“What’s wrong?” Gally asks, concern written all over his face. 

You shake your head, “Nothing…” You watch as the elevator closes and the numbers shift as it goes down to the ground floor. A woman asks you to leave the room so she can check up on Gally, and you agree to, moving passed her, you sit on a chair in the row outside his room, still watching the elevator.

Time goes by that you don’t notice, you’re too caught up in whirling thoughts about Gally, and about Thomas. They’ve arrested him, but what happens now? A trial? He’s only a minor, but you’re not too knowledgeable about trials and court… You sink further into the plastic, neutral coloured chair; maybe you’ll have to testify. You cringe at the thought, being surrounded by people in a courtroom, asked questions by the lawyers. Is this all really happening?

_Bzz. Bzz._   _Bzz_.

You find your phone, an incoming call from your Mom. You take in a long breath knowing this call won’t be so easy to get through. You answer it.  
“Y/N? A police officer came last night! I realised you weren’t home, do you know how–

You cut in quickly, "Mom… let me explain. Please.” You wait a few seconds for here incoherent rambling to finish before you begin, “I was helping out a friend…”


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final part of Together. Thank you for your support in views and comments, user interactions are what keep me writing! I hope this last part wraps this series up nicely, thank you again, and hope you enjoyed Together. :)

It’s been months since the incident, and when you look back on it you feel as though it never even happened. Couldn't have even been real. But Gally's bruises and trouble sleeping remind you that it  _was_  very real.

Gally lounges on your couch, his tall build causing him to take up almost all the space. You grab the remote, and wedge yourself in any free spots you can find. “Don't, like, you know, take up all the room here or something.”

He laughs and steals the remote from you, “Your couch is just tiny.”

You shake your head, laughing, and steal the remote back, “Sure, sure.” You flick through the TV guide to see if anything is worth watching. You glance quickly at Gally, and can’t help but smile. Even if things were disastrous throughout this year, it brought you two together, for real now. After everything... Gally didn’t know how to feel about Justin most days, that he really was gone, and the truth about it all was finally out. But his shock or discomfort about it all... it’s been replaced by peace.

“Hey... so, Newt called me earlier today.” Gally starts, a strange quietness to his tone of voice, like he's stepping on thin ice.

You turn to him, “Was it about Thomas?”

He nods, and you realise, Newt has been finding it a little bit hard to talk to you about Thomas since the incident, because he was both of you and Newt's friend, and because of the circumstances since. But you have noticed Newt and Teresa making more of an effort to talk to Gally, and it's nice.

You put the remote down, now ignoring the TV altogether, “What was the verdict?”

Gally sighs, and brings his arm around your shoulders, one of your favourite ways of affection from him. “Not guilty... for Justin's death.”

You bite the inside of your cheek, flashing back to those awful moments of having to testify in court, of having to replay the events of that night to complete strangers. “But?”

Gally seems calm about it all. Both you and him hoped that Thomas wouldn’t be found guilty, so much had happened-- Thomas was messed up in so many ways, it was hard to place all of the blame on him for Justin's death... it wasn’t his fault, not really. “They’re sending him into rehab for two years, somewhere really restricted, because technically he is still a minor and they can’t just ignore the whole... drug thing.”

You lean into him further, and his arms wrap around you completely, “I still can’t believe all of this... They really found him not guilty?” 

“Yeah... But it’s all pretty complicated.” He leans his chin over the top of your head, "I mean, like I said, he's a minor for one thing, even if they trial minors like adults when it comes to murder... there were just too many things contributing to why it happened.”

“Like Janson's... manipulation, right?”

He breathes quite steadily, considering the topic of conversation, “Right. Janson manipulated Thomas to kill Justin... because if he didn't, Janson would have hurt him... or even killed him.”

You sigh as you think back to the phone conversation you recorded, which ended up being used as evidence in the courtroom. Shaking your head as you remember, hating that day and all its memories. It almost feels like a lifetime ago, the person you were that night, someone so brave... not really like you at all. “It's all a mess.”

He hugs you tighter, “I know, baby, I know.”

You reach his cheek for a quick kiss, and he responds by returning the kiss to your lips. You lean into the kiss as it deepens, and his hands cup your face as he tries to bring you even closer. “Mm, wait-

But he continues to kiss you anyway and you laugh into them.

You finally manage to escape his kisses, “Gally!”

He smiles ever so sweetly, “Hey, any chance I can get... you've been away for way too long.”

He's somewhat right. After the incident, your parents kept you locked up tight. Only Teresa could visit you, and all you could do was watch TV, continue school work, and visit your therapist-- a new past time forced on by your parents. Although, you were able to Skype call Gally on numerous occasions, to continue his tutoring, but it wasn't really the same. The therapist idea lasted those couple of months until she said that it would be good for you to reconnect again, to go to school, to see Gally. Your parents disagreed at first, like parents do, but over time they changed their minds, thankfully. During that time, you were able to re-establish your friendship with Teresa, and you’ll always be thankful for that time, you’re not sure what you would do without a friend like her.

You smile over at him, "Not that I don't like kissing you or anything, but you're holding out on me."

Gally's eyebrows screw up and he squints out of confusion, "I think you don't understand the whole concept of kissing, that's the lead up--

"Gally!" You push him gently and he only frowns some more. "I meant, you're holding out on me on  _your_  news, remember?" Gally called earlier saying he had some great news, but you two get distracted by each other way too easily. Both fortunately and unfortunately a great re-occurrence. 

Gally rolls his eyes, "Well, you could have given me some context..."

You cross your arms over your chest, "Are you going to tell me or what?"

He pouts for a moment, knowing you lack patience most of the time. "I got accepted into the local college on a football scholarship."

"What!?" You leap at him, your arms sliding around his neck, pulling him into a close hug, "That's wonderful!" You kiss him on the cheek and giggle at his blushing cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah, it's not a big deal..."

You shake your head, "It _so_ is, Gally, I'm so proud of you!"

He smiles, "Well I guess I wouldn't even have had a shot without my trusty tutor." 

You kiss him immediately, and he kisses you back, both happy and content, excited for the future years, and wanting to spend all of that together.

You return his smile, "You know that I love you, right?"

"Yeah..." He shies away, hating that he blushes so easily, pressing his forehead into your shoulder, a muffled voice says, "I love you too, Y/N." 


End file.
